Unexpected Jedi
by Squasher
Summary: Two years have passed since the execution of Order 66, a group of Jedi survived and with the help of a Mandalorien ally the group must survive on a world with aggressive natives and the enemy who shot them down on this primitive world. I suck with summaries, this story is related to my other Soul Of The Jedi series but you can read this on it's own. SW Au/Eu & mix Hobbit book/film
1. Prolouge

**AN: hello this is the start of a new story of mine it is related to my other story "Soul of the Jedi" though you don't need to read that to understand this.**

 **Disclaimer. I only own my OC's and that's it Star Wars belongs to Lucas and Disney, the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien**

 **Addendum: this has been edited with the help of my good friend Jacob Sailer I recommend you check his stories out for now I hope you enjoyed the superior draft of this chapter.**

Prologue

A young man sat in the cockpit of his ship, he sighed tiredly, "How long will this go on?" he asked no one in particular as he picked up a data pad and decided to record what was happening at the moment. It was one of the things he did ever since the start of the Jedi Purge.

"Begin Log: I haven't done one of these in awhile, been busy and all... it has been two years since Order 66 was issued. My friends and I were at the temple when it all went down. Almost all in our little group made it out... I don't know what happened to Daniel," he choked a bit on the name, "we were escorting a group of initiates with master K'kruhk when we were ambushed. The younglings made it through the door and so did Daniel, Chase, and Master K'kruhk, then the clones shot the door mechanics and we had no choice but to fight them... I don't know how many we killed, but they kept coming!"

He shook his head in frustration, and the long buried pain reaching out to dig into his cut with its icy fingers. He then sighed, and continued.

"That was, until to our surprise, former master Depa Billaba appeared and saved us with another padawan, Jasmine Yajk. We managed to escape the temple, and thanks to Serra and Cin Drallig, survived a brief encounter with the new sith lord: Darth Vader," he almost spit out that last name, he shook his head in slight disgust, "I'm not even going to get into that. Well, anyway, we found ourselves on a planet out of Republic space. You'd think we'd be safe their right?"

He smirked at his rhetorical question, scoffing at it: "Well you'd be wrong. The planet was taken over by a group called the Knights of Opalka, and here's the kicker: they despise Force Sensitives! So we ended up helping a local resistance for almost 2 years and we did very well too," he sighed in sadness, "then it happened. The Empire invaded and Master Billaba was killed in the fighting, and we had to leave... and that's pretty much everything else other than the fact that while we were on…"

He shook his head again, closing his eyes in despair at the memories bubbling to surface. He coughed to regain his composure, and continued:

"I don't remember what it's called, but that doesn't matter. We acquired several new allies but we're currently on a small ship, basically looking for work. We need credits to keep the mother ship working. One of our new crew was a boy, about 16 or 17 now, named Janus Lynn. Depa took him as her apprentice when we discovered his affinity to the Force. He'd apparently been trying to learn it for years on his own... a difficult task but not impossible," he said with a smile before sobering again, "he took it really hard when Depa died and his world subjugated... again."

"Viridian?" a familiar female voice asked. Viridian turned to see a sixteen year old girl with beautiful strawberry blond hair and amethyst eyes. She wore standard civilian clothing with some armor pads on her arms. She smiled tiredly as she leaned against the doorway. Viridian quickly switched off his recorder and swung around in his chair.

"Hey Kes, is it your turn for the night shift?" he asked as he looked at the Chrono.

"Yeah," she confirmed, "What were you doing?"

Viridian let out a breath, "I was recording in my journal."

"Oh I see," she nodded. A comfortable silence descended between them.

"...I'm not all that tired, Kes. If you want you can go back to sleep… or keep me company. Whichever you prefer."

Kes smiled and took the seat next to him, "I could use some company."

"That's good, how are the others?"

"They're all asleep," Kes answered.

"How's Janus doing? He's been quiet ever since the empire took… what was it called?" Viridian asked sheepishly.

Kes just shook her head slightly in amusement at her friends forgetfulness, "it was called Carthean, Viridian," she told him with a smirk, "but yeah, in many ways, it reminds me of you after we survived the temple massacre," she choked on that and almost burst into tears. Viridian swallowed a lump in his throat and fought the urge to shed tears himself. The massacre was still a hard subject even two years later.

"I don't see how I talked back to members of that organization quite a bit." Viridian countered.

"You dealt with it differently than he is, give him time," she replied patiently. Viridian nodded in agreement, "Say, is the probe still transmitting?" she asked. The probe was sent ahead of them to scout out resources in the unknown regions. The probe stopped in a system some time ago and if Viridian was right, they'd be coming upon it soon.

"I'll check," Viridian swiveled in his seat to check the readouts, "Well this is troubling," his tone showed concern as he double and triple checked the readings.

"What's the matter?" Kes asked worried.

Viridian turned to look at her, "The probe stopped transmitting." he answered, "I'm trying to get the last transmission displayed here," then he exclaimed, "got it!"

"What did it detect last?"

"It detected a giant rock, and the giant rock shot molten rock at it." Viridian answered somewhat in disbelief.

"What?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Believe me, I have no idea either, but that's what the readings say."

"Can you convert it into visual information so we can see it."

"Yeah, one moment," Viridian went to work on it. In less than a minute he had a very poor holo image of the object that destroyed the probe, "Sorry this is the best I can do with the equipment we have."

"It's better than nothing," she waved away the apology. The object did indeed look like a giant asteroid, "that's peculiar."

"You see it too?"

"The asteroid moved with the probe! No matter what the probe did the asteroid always followed..." she started.

"Than the ship fired at the probe with molten magma,." Viridian finished, "we'll be arriving in the system within half an hour. Send a coded message to the mother ship, and I'll wake everyone."

"Okay," she nodded and set about to prepare the message. Viridian pressed a button on the console and the ship entered yellow alert. With that, he rose and walked into the crew quarters; seeing that some of them were stirring from the alarm with three of them being wide awake: Jak Vizla, Ulra Jasmine, and Janus Lynn.

"I'm so sorry about disturbing your sleep everyone," he said loud enough to wake up everyone else, "but we got a situation."

"What the matter Viridian?" Du, the young zabrak male asked. He had black hair tied in a wolf's tail that covered some of the vestigial horns on his head.

"Well, Du. Kes and I have discovered something: the probe has been destroyed." he answered.

"By what?" A cathar female asked. She was about four years older than himself; her feline eyes narrowed in preparation.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Viridian stated.

"So you don't know?" Janus asked, crossing his arms.

"The object appeared to be a giant asteroid that moved with the probe."

"So maybe the Probe just entered the orbit of an asteroid?" Jak suggested.

Viridian shook his head, "Even if that probe made course corrections, the asteroid still followed it."

"Hmn, that's peculiar," Jak agreed as he stood up, "We'll meet you in the living area."

Viridian nodded in agreement and left the quarters to check on Kes to see if she was done composing a message. When he got to the cockpit he saw her standing up, stating, "the message has been sent."

"Great," he nodded, "please tell me you didn't make the code too complex?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. If they know their mathematics, they'll decode it quickly." she reassured.

"So basically they need a Given to decode it." he translated with a smirk.

"Hey!" she defended, her cheeks turning red.

"Don't 'hey' me, Kes! You tend to go overboard when it comes to codes," he replied matter a factly "but quite frankly, it's what I like about you. Now let's go meet them in the living area," he brushed past her, not missing the small blush appearing on her cheeks at the compliment.

"Alright," she agreed, sighing to get control of her emotions, and followed him to the living area with the holo projector. When they arrived, the crew was on deck, their gear prepped and ready for battle.

"So, what is the situation?" the female Cathar asked.

Viridian turned to Kes and gestured with his hand to show them. She pressed a button and showed the object.

"You're right, it does look like an asteroid." Du said in agreement.

"What did it use to destroy it? I don't see any obvious weapons on it." Jak observed as he studied the image intently.

"Keep in mind this is not a good image, but it's better than nothing. As for your question though, the rock apparently fired molten rock at the probe."

"Hmn." Jak hummed in thought, "This just gets weirder and weirder."

"How long till we arrive at the probes last known location?" Viridian turned to the 16 year old echani girl who asked the question. She had short white hair, chalk pale skin, and a blindfold covering where her silver eyes once were. When she'd been in captivity, the Knights of Opalka tortured her: poured acid in her eyes and effectively scaring them; blinding her during their final year in the resistance on Carthena. She hadn't talked about what happened to her during her captivity... all that the group knew was she was unlikely to see again.

"About 20 minutes."

"This is peculiar," stated a Miraluka female. She wore lite mandalorian armor, and also had a blindfold covering her eyes except in her case, she had no eyes to begin with.

"What's the matter?" Jak asked noticing her perplexed tone.

"I can't sense anything." she told them.

All the force users in the crew stretched out their senses and to their shock they found nothing but a complete absence, "What the hell could generate such a thing?" Du asked.

"What thing?" Jak asked confused

"Nothing." Viridian answered.

"What?"

"What I mean is there is nothing to be sensed, no life forms, no emotions, nothing, it's a void." Viridian tried to explain.

"Which means it shouldn't exist." Kes stated.

"Well there were two things in history that we are all familiar with that did has a peculiar presence in the force." the Echani said.

"You're right, Xey, except the Lord of Hunger and the Exile still had some sort of presence in the force." the Miraluka commented.

"Ulra has a point." Viridian agreed.

"We can speculate later we should get ready for a battle." the Cathar stated.

"I agree with Jasmine." Xey nodded.

"Alright, battle stations!" Viridian barked and the crew moved with a purpose. Jak and Du went to the turrets on the top and bottom of the ship, Viridian to the cockpit along with Kes, while Jasmine to the dorsal turret. Xey, Janus, and Ulra went to the center of the ship and strapped in.

"We'll be exiting hyperspace in ten seconds," Kes bellowed into the comms "9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…" she never finished the countdown as the ship was violently ripped from Hyperspace! The crew shook in their seats, bouncing back and forth like bobbleheads while their harnesses held fast.

" _What was that_?!" Jak shouted into the com.

"One moment!" Viridian shouted back, "A gravity well pulled us out of hyperspace prematurely! We're very lucky we weren't destroyed from that!"

" _My targeting sensors are down."_ Du reported through the comms.

" _Same back here."_ Jasmine fired back.

" _Osik, mines dead too!"_ Jak confirmed.

Viridian looked at Kes, "This isn't good.," they said in unison. Then Viridian saw the same 'asteroid' in the viewport.

The console pinged signifying that they were being hailed. Kes looked over at Viridian and went to answer it, "Hello?" she asked. The response was in a heavily accented Basic:

" _The infidel shall be purified in the name of Yun'Yuuzhen._ "

Suddenly Viridian saw a burst of molten rock shoot out from the asteroid and he banked hard left, "Ulra is there a planet we can set down?" he roared desperately into the comms.

"There is a planet strong in the Force! Surely you can sense it?" she asked.

Viridian delved into the Force and sure enough he found it, "Yes... I sense it! I need you all to hold off any fighters that come our way! Also we may have to abandon ship when we get close to the world!" he told them, they all responded in the affirmative and Viridian took off at full speed towards the planet.

" _Janus, you come up here and take over for me."_ Jak commanded, knowing it was nigh impossible to attempt shooting something without targeting sensors.

" _I don't see how I could make any difference! We can't sense them remember?"_ Janus reminded him. Jak cursed under his breath he had almost forgot about that.

" _I got one of them_." Du cheered. Jasmine also confirmed that she got a kill as well. Pretty good considering they were only using their hand eye coordination to hit them.

The ship rocked as the plumes of molten rock hit the ship and pieces of the bulkhead melted off, "We'll be entering the atmosphere in thirty seconds!" Viridian reported, "Get to the escape pods!" he ordered as he set the autopilot, and shot out of his seat after Kes to the escape pod area: where everyone jumped into their personal pods, "I just hope we can get back to the known galaxy somehow!"

With that, the pods blasted from the ship and plummeted to the world below.

(location the Valley of Imladris, Elrond's home.)

Elrond, half elven lord of Rivendell, stood on his balcony overlooking the hidden valley but tonight he wasn't looking at the valley but instead in the sky: eight meteorites falling in crimson splendor: the largest went over the mountain and six of them were falling close to the settlement of bree. One of them fell in the wilderness near the valley itself and the final one fell near where the Shire was.

"Father did you see that?" Elrond turned to see his son appear on the balcony with him.

"I did indeed, Elladan. One of those falling stars fell near here. At first light I want you and your brother to take a look."

"Yes, father," Elladan said with a nod and turned to leave, "what of the other fallen stars, father?" he asked that just having occurred to him.

"I will send out riders for the group. The last one I'll leave to Gandalf: he is on his way to the Shire as we speak." Elrond assured him. Elladan nodded in acceptance and left to find his brother.

When the sun came up, Elrond sent Elladan and Elrohir to the fallen star nearest Rivendell, and sent Glorfindel, his most powerful warrior along with his apprentice, to the second crash site.

(location the wilds between Bree and Rivendell)

Xey groaned as she awoke, feeling the large lump on her head. She felt a great sense of nausea swelling up in her gut, and fought hard to maintain her composure. Moving through the smoke, she took a moment to get her bearings; checking to make sure she had her weapons, her lightsaber and a blaster. The Force was truly powerful here. She didn't even have to sense herself: she could actually feel a lightside nexus nearby. Through the Force, she saw four lifeforms coming her way: two animals and two sentiates. She panicked slightly, kicking out the door and climbed a nearby tree in hopes of hiding. The trample of a steed neared her and she did her best to hide herself.

"By the Valar, brother, this object was made by hands!" she heard a man's voice exclaim.

"But whose hands crafted such a vessel I wonder?" another man's voice asked, shocked in equal measures.

'Please don't see me.' she silently begged. She normally wouldn't have been terrified at this but in these circumstances without her friends with her and in her weakened state...

"My lady, are you okay?" the first man asked, breaking her out of her musings.

"What are you doing in the tree?" the other asked, concern written on his face.

"Please don't hurt me." she practically begged.

"We would never do such a thing, my lady! I am Elladan, son of Elrond, Lord of Rivendell."

"And I am Elrohir son of Elrond." the other introduced himself.

"I don't care who you are, I won't risk that happening again!" she shouted.

Elladan looked at his twin and spoke in the language of Quenya: " _Do you think she was…"_ he trailed off.

" _I dare not speculate on that. It is her business."_ Elrohir stated firmly.

"What language are you speaking!?" Xey shouted.

"My apologies, my lady," Elladan bowed his head politely, "please come with us to Rivendell the healers their can help you with whatever you need."

Xey looked uncertain, "How do I know I can trust you?" she asked, her voice almost breaking. The sons of Elrond genuinely felt pity for her. She seemed so terrified of them.

"My Lady, I don't know what to offer you in order for you to trust us as I believe you are not of this world and therefore know nothing of the Elves. I promise we bring you no harm." Elrohir told her.

"You're right I'm not of this world!" she shouted back, her mistrust heavy in her voice, "We were attacked and my crew took to the life pods!"

"My lady, I don't mean to scare you, but if we saw your 'life pods' fall than it is very possible others may have as well. Please come with us to Rivendell, and we will do everything we can to find your crew." Elladan jumped in, not particularly up to facing the creatures that may or may not come through there.

Xey whimpered slightly and reluctantly made her way down the tree seeing no other option, though she did pull out her blaster just in case, "Alright then, but if you do anything I won't hesitate to defend myself," she growled.

The brothers were confused how she could do anything with a blindfold but ultimately didn't question her, "You have nothing to fear of us my lady, but I understand," they said in unison.

"Can you follow us?" Elrohir asked uncertainly.

"I don't need my eyes to see." she snapped.

"Alright." Elladan replied, raising his hand in a disarming gesture, and led them back to the hidden Valley, 'I hope that whatever happened to you was resolved,' he thought to himself as the sons of Elrond led the uneasy girl to the hidden valley.

(Location five miles off of Bree)

Jak felt his body being shook as he started to awake. He became instantly alert and reached out and grabbed someone's neck, "Hey man calm down, it's just me." Du squirmed. Upon realising who he was holding, Jak let him go.

"Sorry." Jak muttered as he looked around, "Where are the others?"

Du rubbed his throat a bit, "They're over there... at least five of them are," he answered him while pointing to the right.

Jak nodded in acceptance and picked himself up, "Let's go get them and get out of here! It's likely that those aliens who shot us down will come down and finish the job."

"I was thinking the same thing." Du nodded and ran over to the pods to get them up. Jak shook his head to clear the tiredness and moved to one of the pods after making sure he had his weapons on him. He pried open the pod he came across and saw Ulra struggling with her harness. He smiled in amusement.

"Hello Riduur, it's good to see you!" he greeted cheekily. She smiled and finally managed to get the straps undone.

"Good to see you too," she chuckled as he helped her out of the pod. He looked over and saw that Du had gotten Janus out of his pod and they were getting the others.

"Can you tell who's here?" Jak asked her.

"Yeah: Kes, Jasmine, Janus, Du, you, and me." she listed off.

"So Viridian and Xey crashed somewhere else," Jak noted somewhat needlessly.

After everyone was gathered, Du told them something, "On the way down I saw a settlement some distance to the south, I say we head there and get a look at a map."

"Well, it sure beats sitting here waiting for our 'friends' in space coming down to kill us." Janus stated in agreement.

"I agree. Did you see a spaceport in the town?" Jak asked.

"No." Du said with a shake of his head.

"Okay, it's not the end of the world." Kes sighed optimistically, "perhaps there is a space port somewhere on this world." 

"Or we landed on a world with no space travel what so ever." Janus deadpanned.

"That is a very real possibility." Jak agreed, "but at the moment we don't have a lot of options lets head to this town that Du saw and then we'll work from there."

With that the group of six began their trek through the wilds.

(Location the Barrow Downs of Cardolan)

Viridian let out a groan of frustration as he tried to undo the straps of his Pod before he took a deep breath, chanting silently: 'there is no emotion, there is peace' he thought to himself the first line of the Jedi montra. He then grabbed his lightsaber and activated it, the beautiful viridian blade illuminating the pod's interior. He then began adjusting a few controls: twisting the knob at the end of the hilt near the blade, and the blade began to shorten till it got to four inches. He then cut the straps and clambered out of the pod.

"Oh great, I landed in a graveyard." he sighed as he looked at his surroundings. He saw hills with stone entrances and pillars. He continued to look around and he saw the ruins of a city in the distance, "hmn, that could be a good starting place," he mused to himself and looked at the position of the sun, "it's early in the morning I should start now."

With that, he made his way to the ruins of the city with the hope of getting a general idea of where to go. He stopped and heard loud noises coming from the air, and looked up to see the same fighters that had shot them down. With that, he broke into a run only for the fighters to land in front of him and block his escape.

"Terrific," he groaned as the fighters surrounded him; opening to reveal scarred humanoids. They rose, moving with breakneck speed and surrounded Viridian all the while holding some snake like creatures. They also wore some kind of crustacean creature for what he assumed was armor. Viridian drew his lightsaber ready for a fight he knew that was to come. The aliens actually seemed to become more cautious upon seeing his weapon, "Given by your reaction you know what I am, and if you know what I am than you know precisely what I can be capable of," he stated, his eyes narrowing, "so I have one question, what are you?"

The alien snarled his answer in the same heavy accented Basic he heard on the ship, "Yuuzhan Vong, Je'daii!"

With that, they lunged at the Jedi with their weapons raised.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter and if you have any concerns please review (Unless it has to do with the enemy I used in which case if you vehemently hate the Vong, then do one of two things, enjoy the story for they will be killed en mass, or F*** off!) please and thank you :D**


	2. The Lone Ranger & The Wandering Wizard

**An: here is another chapter for you all to enjoy**

 **Disclaimer: I only own My Oc's**

 **Addendum: this has been edited with the help of my good friend Jacob Sailer I recommend you check his stories out for now I hope you enjoyed the superior draft of this chapter.**

 **The Lone Ranger, and The Wandering Wizard**

Viridian lept into the air, the snake staff just barely missing his head, and landed on top one of the hills. He quick-drew his blaster and shot at one of the warriors in the chest. The warrior staggered back a bit, a burning hole simmering with smoke in his sternum, but kept coming!

'Okay, his armor is blaster resistant. Aim for the head.' Viridian thought to himself and shot the warrior in the head, falling to the ground in haze of smoke. One of the other warrior's screamed in rage and performed a slight twitch in his hand and wrist, and the creature he was holding sprayed something in his direction. Viridian jumped to another hill and avoided the spray as it layered the stone in a thick green slime: any grass it landed on shriveled up and died in a matter of minutes.

'Great. Snake creatures can spray venom. Avoid at all cost.' he thought as he shot another warrior in the head, leaving only four to go.

Just then an arrow whizzed through the air and struck one of the Vong in the head, dropping him to the floor. Viridian took the distraction to blast another one in the head leaving only two to warriors to fight, who quickly took cover. With that, Viridan put his blaster away and leapt into the circle with his lightsaber active. One of the warrior's snarled and did another hand gesture and the snake hardened into a staff! Viridian cleaved at the warrior's shoulder, but the Vong simply batted his strike away, and wickedly smirked at him. Viridian clenched his teeth and cleaved again at the Vong, only this time to kick the warrior square in the chest and to the floor. He heard movement behind him, and turned to the other only to see that he was tackled by a man, who quickly slit the Vong's throat.

Viridian rose to his classic combat stance, blade held forward in both hands as he readied for the other man to make the first move. But… he didn't. He simply looked at him with the astonishment and suspicion as Viridian had given him. The man's appearance was gruff and almost dirty with wiry black hair, and a jaw defined by a thick beard. He wore a dark cloak and what Viridian assumed was traveling clothes. Viridian watched the man closely as he sheathed his dagger, tracing down to his hip where a longsword lay. He could also make out the outline of a bow and quiver hanging from his back, hidden underneath the cloak. Then the man rose, showing his monstrous height, easily towering a head over him. He then smiled softly, and gestured behind the young Jedi.

Viridian turned, the Vong warrior attempting to rush him again only for Viridian to beat him to the punch! He charged him first, pouncing on him like a panther and kicking right down to the ground. He then plucked his staff from him, crushing its head beneath his boot. The Vong warrior snarled up at him, and Viridian replied by putting his boot on the warrior's throat. Viridian made sure his captive was helpless before turning his attention back to the towering bear of a man, who simply watched him in silent observation. The Vong blurted out curses and obscenities in his warrior tongue. Viridian glared at him and growled: "Alright then, mystery alien! I have a few questions for you!"

The Vong Warrior glared at Viridian in absolute seething rage, "You gave them a warrior's death but you don't give me the same kindness? YOU SHAME ME!" The warrior bellowed in the same heavily accented basic as the rest.

"I fail to see how that's my problem," Viridian growled smirking, "You shot me and my friends out of the sky! Do you think I give a damn about your 'honor system'?"

"You mock me." the warrior growled, "When Yun'Yuuzhen is released, you will wish you had never existed!"

Viridian just rolled his eyes, "Oh, I'm **so** scared!" he smirked with mock fear, "Enough of this. Tell me what I want to know! Who are the Yuuzhan Vong?" Viridian bellowed, the Warrior only glaring contemptuously at Viridian in utter silence, "So this is how it's going to be eh?" Viridian roared, kicking the warrior in the head; effectively knocking him out.

Viridian turned to the man who watched the encounter, embarrassment locked on his face, "Sorry you had to see that."

"Think nothing of it lad," the man smiled warmly, his voice was soft yet powerful, introducing himself with a bow, "I am Celebion, Ranger of the Dunedain,"

"I am Viridian of the Jedi order." Viridian reciprocated.

"Hmmm… I saw a star fall from the sky but I did not think there'd be life from other worlds. The Valar must have had a hand in it," Celebion mused as he circled the Jedi in fascination.

"The Valar?" Viridian asked curiously

"Oh, of course, you probably have different names for them," Celebion chuckled embarrassingly, "they are deities."

"Oh I see... uh, well, we believe that Humans were seeded across the stars by a group we call the Celestials," Viridian explained, "Maybe the Celestials and the Valar are one in the same."

"Perhaps." the ranger nodded in agreement before turning his attention to the warrior Viridian had knocked out, "Would you like some rope to tie him up if you still wish to question him?"

Viridian turned to the warrior and nodded, "If you have any to spare." Viridian answered.

The Ranger pulled out a rope from his sack as Viridian moved to remove the armor from the warrior. After that, Celebion worked to bind the warrior with the rope, "I have seen many orcs in my time but these ones… it seems more dangerous."

"Orcs?" Viridian asked.

"As much as I would love to explain these things to you, Viridian, I suggest we put as much distance between us and these cursed lands as possible before dark."

"Cursed?!" Viridian asked in alarm as the ranger made a clicking noise and a horse rushed over. With that they mounted the warrior on the steed and made their way out of the barrows, reaching the end of them a few hours later.

"You said that those lands were cursed. How?" Viridian asked.

Celebion sighed, anger and bitterness heavy in his eyes, "The Witch Lord of Angmar sent evil spirits and placed them into the bodies that inhabit the Barrows: turning them into the Barrow Wights. They are a terrifying creatures of evil and one should be cautious when they go to the Barrow Downs."

Viridian just sighed in sympathy: "When did this happen?"

"Centuries ago." Celebion stated.

"Well atleast you nothing to worry about from the Witch Lord-" Viridian started.

"Don't speak of things you don't understand." Celebion interrupted, the warning heavy in his tone.

"I'm sorry… wait, are you saying this Witch Lord is still alive?!" Viridian asked surprised

"He is Nazgul, the fist of the nine. Neither living nor dead." Celebion answered grimly.

"What's a Nazgul?" Viridian asked, only for Celebion to sigh exasperatedly.

"They were once great kings of men, but the Dark Lord Sauron gave them nine rings of power. Blinded by their greed and lust for power the took them without question, and now they are slaves to his will. They are ringwraiths: the Dark Lord's most deadliest servants."

"I see… I have seen many a strange things in my time but this really takes first place in terms of strangeness." Viridian mused.

"...So tell me, Viridian of the Jedi, where do you come from?" Celebion asked, both to change the subject and because he was curious.

"I come from a world called Coruscant. The entire place is covered in great spires and all around there are vessels that fly in the air. The temple I grew up in is one of those spires: it is also full of all types of people from all walks of life."

"Such a world sounds crowded, I think I prefer this one over that." Celebion comentented amusingly.

"I don't blame you," Viridian admitted, "personally I'd prefer another world like Dantoine. It's a farming world and it's peaceful."

"You've been to other worlds?" Celebion asked him, astonished. Viridian simply shrugged.

"Space and interplanetary travel is as normal for me as riding waggons and sailing ships are for you."

"Amazing," Celebion replied in awe. With that, the duo walked in silence for a while. Viridian occasionally had to knock the warrior out again every so often.

"So where are we going?" Viridian asked.

"To my camp, just north of the Shire," he answered, "there we can interrogate this orc and see what he knows."

"What is an orc?" Viridian asked curiously.

"The Orcs are a creation of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. It is believed that they were elves once but Morgoth tortured, and mutilated many of them until they became what they are today: an aggressive war like society that only desires to kill all in their path and takes pleasure in causing suffering."

"Hmn." Viridian hummed as he looked back at the warrior still bound on the horse, "He didn't call himself an orc though he called himself a Yuuzhan Vong."

Celebion looked back at the warrior, "Perhaps a new breed of orc than."

"Unless the orcs have space capabilities than this guy isn't even an orc." Viridian added.

"... so what do you suggest?" Celebion asked

"I don't know. The sooner we interrogate this guy the better."

With that the quickened their pace to the Ranger's camp, reaching it within the hour.

After arriving at the camp, which was just a tent with a fire pit and a cooking pot, Viridian and the Ranger tied the Vong to a nearby tree.

"That should hold him. I need to go hunting for tonight's supper can you watch the camp?" Celebion asked.

"Of course." Viridian nodded and sat down at the base of a tree to keep an eye on the Vong and the camp; taking the time to meditate.

Celebion meanwhile, was hot on the trail of a young buck; following it for about three miles before he saw his target in a clearing. He quietly took an arrow and nocked it; steadying his breath as he took aim.

The Arrow flew true and struck its target in the heart. The Deer bolted in pain, and ran a few steps, but succumbed to its wound before he could get any sort of distance. With that, he hoisted it over his shoulders and began his trek back only to stop in his tracks when someone called out to him, "Ranger!"

Celebion turned to see the newcomer. His eyes widened in pleasant surprise and he smiled welcomingly.

Viridian roused out of his meditation when he sensed a powerful entity approaching. It was powerful in the Light Side of the Force, but also something else that Viridian couldn't place. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. He leaped into the branches above him, waiting for whoever it was to reveal itself.

He looked down and saw that Celebion had returned with some kind of animal on his shoulders but he also had company: an elderly man wearing a grey cloak and a blue pointed hat. He also wore a silver scarf, which his waist length gray beard hid. He had long grey stringy hair, and bushy eyebrows that peered out of the brim of his hat.

"Hmm, I wonder where this young man you told me is," the newcomer mused with a sagely smile, "I only see the orc there."

"I don't know Mithrandir. He was here when I left," Celebion stated in alarm. Just then, Viridian dropped down from his hiding spot and made himself known. Celebion looked up from where he came from and then at Viridian, smirking, "Oh, there you are."

"My apologies, I sensed a powerful presence approach and I didn't want to take any chances, but I see my fears are unfounded." Viridian apologized with a bow.

"You have nothing to apologize for my young friend," Mithrandir smiled reassuringly, "it is wise for you to take measures to defend yourself."

"Well said," Viridian nodded and stretched out his hand, "my name is Viridian."

"I am known by many names but most call me Gandalf," Gandalf said warmly as he shook his hand, "Gandalf the Grey."

"Mithrandir, will you eat with us?" Celebion asked.

Gandalf looked at the bound warrior uncertainly, "I think we should interrogate him first to see what he is here for."

With that Viridian walked up to the warrior and lightly slapped him on the face, "Oy! Wake up!" Viridian prodded; causing the warrior to stir and wake up as soon as he saw his surroundings. He glared at Viridian.

"I have studied the Je'daii ways and from my reports what you are doing goes against that 'philosophy'," the Vong smugly told Viridian.

Viridian just stared at the warrior blankly, "Tell me have you been a Jedi before?"

The warrior was confused by that question, "No."

"Than keep your tongue in check about the things you don't understand." Viridian growled, "also there's nothing saying that I can't interrogate you."

"Viridian if I may." Gandalf interjected, Viridian backed off and Gandalf strode up to the Warrior, kneeling before him. He stared hard into the Vongs eyes, and though the Vong attempted the same only found he couldn't, and turned away in fear, "so tell me, what is a servant of Sauron doing all the way over here?" Gandalf asked.

"I serve no 'Sauron'! I serve Yun-Yuuzhan." the warrior answered much to his own surprise.

Gandalf just nodded, "Ah, I see. So who is this Yun-Yuuzhan?" he asked.

"Yun-Yuuzhan is the greatest god of the Yuuzhan Vong! The one who through his sacrifice created us and the other gods." the Vong Warrior answered, his eyes wide in utter surprise; shouting, "What is this, why am I answering your questions?!"

"What are the Yuuzhan Vong?" Gandalf asked firmly.

The Vong attempted to struggle against the spell but it proved futile, "We are the chosen race. We come from a far off place. We spent millennia traveling through the void between stars," he stammered, black blood oozing from where his nose would be.

"You're from a far-flung Galaxy?" Viridian asked astonished. He looked at Celebion, explaining, "Not even we have done that."

"So you aren't orcs?" Celebion asked.

"The ones you call Orcs are our distant brothers also created by Yun-Yuuzhen." the warrior said, much to the group's surprise.

"Morgoth created the orcs." Gandalf corrected.

"Unless this Yun-Yuuzhan and this Morgoth are one in the same." Viridian suggested, that was a chilling thought to the natives of Arda.

"Yun-Yuuzhan will be released and you will die, Je'daii!" the warrior growled.

"Are we done with him?" Celebion asked.

"Yes I have everything I need." Viridian confirmed. 

"How many of you are here on Arda?" Gandalf asked forcefully.

The Vong appeared to be having an aneurysm now, "a whole civilization… and a legion of warriors." the warrior answered, his eyes bleeding as he begged, "K-kill me, please!"

Viridian pitied the warrior in that moment, "Should we kill him?" Viridian asked the group.

"Please Je'daii, don't offer me mercy! Just kill me! You have already shamed me! You would only make it worse if you send me back! Please just kill me." he started crying now.

Gandalf sighed in pity, "Celebion, do it."

The ranger grabbed his knife and drove the blade into the Warrior's skull, ending his life in an instant. He untied him and the body dropped forward onto its stomach; cold as the ground they stood on.

Viridian let out a breath, "Now what?"

"We leave the body. I lost my appetite." Celebion said as he gathered his things.

"Yeah, I did too." Viridian agreed as he strode over to the horse and studied the armor of the warrior.

Gandalf let out a sigh, "Viridian." Gandalf started getting the lad's attention.

"Yes, Gandalf?" Viridian asked as he held one of the crab creatures that served as the Vongs armor.

"Would you be willing to join me on a quest?" Gandal asked

"What kind of quest?" Viridian asked curiously. This also sparked Celebion's curiosity as well.

"A quest to reclaim a mountain." Gandalf answered, then he explained the whole quest in detail from the dragon Smaug and his takeover of Erebor and who would be leading the quest.

"Would this Thorin Oakenshield even have me go with him?" Viridian asked.

"It would be in his best interest to take you with him should you encounter the Vong." Gandalf told him.

Viridian turned to Celebion, "What about you? Would you go with us as well?"

Celebion thought about it for a moment, answering, "I will go but not because of the treasure. I just need to cross the mountains."

"Thorin would accept that answer, but why would a ranger of the Dunedain want to cross the mountains?" Gandalf asked.

"... To find my daughter." Celebion answered after a moment.

Gandalf nodded in understanding, "How goes the search?"

"It is fruitless as of the moment, but I still hope."

"How long have you been looking?" Viridian asked.

"Twelve years. I have searched all of Eriador and even gone as far as Rohan but I had to answer the call of my fellow rangers and stop my search for a while." Celebion answered sadly.

"I wish to help you." Viridian stated, "and Thorin as well if he'll have me."

"Viridian, you don't need to help me. I would never impose on you." Celebion told him.

"Part of being a Jedi is to help those in need. I wish to help you, Celebion; you helped me with those Vong back there. At least allow me to return the favor." Viridian stated.

Celebion looked at him with tears in his eyes, "I'd appreciate it, Viridian. Thank you."

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "So, where do we need to go?"

"Tomorrow, we'll be having a party at the last member of our company's house, so I suggest you go to the green dragon inn and sleep there tonight," Gandalf told them, "tomorrow we can discuss much more with the rest of the company."

Viridian nodded in agreement, than tilted his head, "Where's the Green Dragon Inn."

"Worry not, my friend." Celebion assured him, "I'll show you."

"Wait don't we have to pay I don't think they'd accept my currency?" Viridian asked worried.

"The hobbits will accept the deer I killed as a fair trade." Celebion assured him.

"If you're sure." Viridian nodded. With that the Ranger and the Jedi made their way into the Shire to get rooms at The Green Dragon Inn for the evening; all the while Viridian hoped his friends were doing well.

 **An: okay I could use a bit of feedback on how well passed this chapter was, was it okay, rushed or slow please let me know.**

 **well see you next time hopefully I hope you all enjoyed.**


	3. An Unexpected Party

**AN: well heres another chapter people I hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my OC's**

 **Addendum: this has been edited with the help of my good friend Jacob Sailer I recommend you check his stories out for now I hope you enjoyed the superior draft of this chapter.**

 **The Unexpected Party**

Viridian woke up to find himself on the floor in a cold sweat, and panting, 'just a dream, just a dream,' he reassured himself. He had been having these recurring nightmares the past few weeks: he'd see himself standing over the bodies of his friends with a grin on his face and a pair of sickly, haunting yellow eyes. Viridian shook his head clear of those thoughts; a knock on the door brought him out of his haze, "Who is it?" he called.

"Tis me." Celebion answered, "I recommend you get ready. The deer I gave the Innkeeper was enough for two days stay here and breakfast. So would you like some Breakfast?" Celebion asked through the door.

"Yes." Viridian answered almost immediately. He was starving considering he hadn't eaten in two days.

"Alright, then let's go." Celebion told him, Viridian hearing his footsteps move away. Yawning, he jumped up to his full height only to hit his head on the low ceiling.

"Ow!" Viridian rubbed his head to sooth the pain and bent his knees to avoid a repeat; getting dressed. he put on a tunic and light grey cloak that Celebion gave him; going over to the mirror to check himself. The clothes hung on Viridian's body but consider how tall Celebion was compared to himself it made sense. Viridian himself was 5'10" and he had a comparatively lean, but well kept build. He stared hard into the weary face that beheld him, his hand tracing the lightsaber scar that ran the length of his jaw: a parting gift from one of the Inquisitors leading the imperial forces at Carthean. With that, Viridian tore his gaze away from the mirror and made his way to the dining area. He found Celebion sitting at one of the small tables and made his way there and sat opposite of him.

When Viridian sat down he looked around and noticed some of the hobbits were looking at him with a level of suspicion and some curiosity, others just outright ignored them, "What can you tell me about hobbits?" Viridian asked Celebion.

Celebion looked around, "Well, Hobbits are a plain folk and don't really bother with the affairs of others. I imagine many of them are wondering why we're here, seldom do the 'big folk' come into the shire," Celebion chuckled, "oh, but they're good people and a happy people at that." he smiled fondly.

Viridian smiled at that, "They are such gentle people from what I've noticed."

Celebion nodded, "Indeed, but don't take their gentleness for pacifism. They will defend their home with vigor," Celebion told him.

Viridian hummed in thought, "I take it that they had to defend their home before?" Viridian asked.

"Oh yes, they fought off a goblin invasion quite some time ago. Almost two hundred years if I recall correctly," Celebion answered, "it was called the battle of Green Fields. The Orcs of Mount Gram, led by Golfimbul, attacked the Shire, and a group of Hobbits led by Bandobras Took saw to the defence."

"Bullroarer Took was so large he could ride a horse, they said," a voice said from behind Viridian. He turned to see a Hobbit coming on over to their table, "you'll forgive me for dropping eaves but I couldn't help but notice ye were talkin' about the invention of golf?" the hobbit asked.

"No, we were asking about the battle of Green Fields." Viridian told him confused.

"Those be one and the same young man," the hobbit said, "beggin' your pardon, the name's Hobson "Roper" Gamgee," he said a held out his hand for the two to shake.

Celebion reached out and took the hand, "Celebion of the Dunedain," he introduced himself with a firm handshake.

Viridian also took the hand, "Viridian Mallory," Viridian introduced himself, "a pleasure to meet you." Hobson smiled in thanks and nodded.

"So would ye like to hear the rest of the tale?" he asked the two.

Celebion scooted over and gestured to the empty space, "Please, I love a good story," he told him.

Hobson smiled and climbed into the seat and called for some ale, "So, the battle of the Geenfields was the only battle to be fought within the borders of the Shire. 'Bullroarer' Took as I told you was so large that he could ride a horse. He charged the Goblin ranks directly for the chieftain and with a wooden club knocked the orc's head clean off. It sailed for a hundred yards and went down a rabbit hole. So, the battle was won and the game of golf invented at the same time." Hobson told his audience. Celebion and Viridian sat there for a moment, stunned into silence.

"I must say I did not hear that part of the tale," Celebion started on the verge of laughing.

While Viridian did wonder what in the galaxy Golf was, he still found the tale funny. Then something occurred to him, "Didn't you say the goblin chieftains name was Golfimbul?" Viridian asked.

Celebion just burst out laughing, "Oh… my, you're right!" he exclaimed between fits of laughter, Viridian and Hobson laughing along with him. The three spent the next few hours just exchanging stories. Viridian, however, refrained from telling too much, such as the fact that he come from another world for fear of confusing the Hobbit.

"Well my friends, it was a pleasure to meet you." Roper said as he stood up, "I have to get home now."

Viridian and Celebion nodded, "We should do this again." Viridian said. Roper smiled and nodded in agreement, leaving the Inn.

Celebion just smiled as the Hobbit left, "Like I said, a good people."

"Yeah, they are." Viridian agreed, "I wonder where we're supposed to meet Gandalf?" he asked him.

"He said to meet him on Bagshot Row in Hobbiton. Fortunately, I know where it is." Celebion answered.

Viridian nodded, "Should we head over there now?"

Celebion hummed in thought, "We still have a few hours, so we can take the scenic route."

Viridian nodded in agreement, "Perfect. I'd love to see more of the Shire."

"Well then, let's go," Celebion agreed as he stood up, "our items should be safe in our rooms."

Viridian nodded though that didn't really matter to him. He still had his weapons on his person. He rose from his chair and followed Celebion out the door, "So, do you think the story of how the Game of Golf was invented true?" Viridian asked as they walked through the Shire.

"I believe you come from the stars. It honestly wouldn't surprise me," Celebion said with a shrug. Several Hobbits on the road spared them a quick glance but mostly ignored them, "So tell me Viridian, what is a Jedi?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Viridian smiled fondly, "The Jedi are an order of Force users that worked to maintain peace throughout the Galaxy. Though in the last thousand years, that has been difficult to do." Viridian admitted with a sigh.

Celebion had so many questions. Such as what was the Force or why the Jedi did what they did. But instead, he asked, "Why is that?"

Viridian breathed out a sigh of melancholy, "A thousand years ago, we approached the end of a war with our ancient enemy, the Sith. After the war was won and the Sith forces decimated, the Galactic Republic drafted an order called the Ruusan Reformation. Basically, it demilitarized the Republic and the Jedi because they believed that the Sith threat was gone. Not only that but it also made the Jedi subservient to the Senate. Meaning we couldn't do anything without their say." Viridian answered as came to rest on the bridge and leaned on the railing, looking down in the small river.

Celebion joined him, "I see. Why are the Jedi and these Sith enemies?" he asked.

Viridian turned to Celebion and thought of the answer for a moment his mouth moved to answer but no words came out, "I'm not sure." Viridian answered honestly after a moment of contemplation.

Celebion hummed in thought, "Your Orders have been fighting for so long you have no idea what the cause is any more?" he stated more than asked, "That is a bit sad."

"I mean I know why we went to war with the Sith the first time. The Empire under Naga Sadow launched an unprovoked attack on the Republic. Then the Republic…" he trailed off.

Celebion waited patiently for him to continue.

Viridian just let out a breath, "Killed them all. Every man, woman, and child," his eyes closed in sadness and guilt.

Celebion sighed in pity, "You shouldn't bear the guilt of what your ancestors did so many years ago, Viridian. Acknowledged that it happened and move on."

"They didn't need to do that," Viridian said tears welling up in his eyes, "yes, what Naga did was unforgivable but all those people... they didn't need to pay for his crimes."

"It is tragic. Perhaps if they hadn't had done that, the Sith Empire and the Republic could have forged an alliance, or the Sith would have tried again regardless." Celebion shrugged.

"We'll never know now," Viridian sighed somewhat, "it is possible that Naga did it because of what happened almost a thousand years before that. With the Dark Jedi and the One Hundred Years Darkness."

This interested Celebion, "And what is that?"

"It was the Second Great Schism within the Jedi Order. A group of Dark Jedi broke off and started to cause havoc and caused a one hundred year war. After the Dark Jedi were defeated, they were exiled from Republic space. We eventually discovered they were the ones who eventually would turn the Sith into what they became."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The Sith were a species, or race."

"Much like the Elves, Humans, Dwarves and Hobbits are?" Celebion asked curiously.

"Yeah, you mentioned Elves before and now I'm curious. Why do they sound familiar?" Viridian asked.

"Are there not any among the stars?"

"They are the stuff of legend," Viridian answered, "hmn... this keeps getting interesting. I'd like to meet an elf."

"Perhaps you will be able to on our quest." Celebion answered.

"Perhaps." Viridian agreed as they left the bridge and continued walking.

"I can't help but notice that you have a look about you that says you've seen battle. Would I be correct in that assumption?" Celebion asked as they strode through the farming area of the Shire.

Viridian looked off into the small fields distantly, "You'd be right. I have seen battle." he finally answered, "I have taken part in two wars now, both of which I served in of my own will."

Celebion heard this and asked another question "How old are you?"

Viridian wiped a tear away, "Sixteen." he answered quietly, much to Celebion's shock, "I was eleven when I fought in the first war and it lasted for three years."

"Eleven?" Celebion asked in disbelief. He had heard of children having to answer the call of battle but those were because they were desperate for fighters, "You did this of your own will, you say?"

"Yes. It was a desperate time. We were at war with an enemy with greater numbers and who could replace their numbers rather easily. A Jedi, no matter how old they are, can turn the tide of a battle by his or her mere presence." Viridian answered, "That and the fact that the first battle in the war, several masters and padawans died. Two hundred Jedi went to save political prisoners, only 29 returned." he added.

Celebion was shocked at that, "How?"

"Anybody can be overwhelmed, even a Jedi. When you're surrounded on all sides and the enemy is raining fire on you, see how long you last." Viridian countered angrily. Celebion raised his hands up.

"I apologize, I meant no offence." Celebion apologise, "it's just that what little I've seen you do, it's hard to believe that warriors like you could be felled that easily."

"Jedi are still flesh and blood. We die as easily as anything else," Viridian answered somberly, "it's just a smart Jedi doesn't die so easily." Viridian added with a smirk, "You see most Jedi don't use ranged weapons in favor for our lightsabers." Viridian explained as they continued walking.

"Your sword of green light?" Celebion asked for confirmation.

"Yeah. Jedi are fast enough to deflect fire from enemies but you still need to close the distance to strike the enemy." Viridian explained, "Typically we rely on the Force to help us in that regard."

"You mention that before. What is the Force?" Celebion asked.

Viridian looked around, "Well the Force is what grants a Jedi his power. It is an energy field that flows throughout the universe. Life generate it," Viridian answered "well, most of them do anyway." he added in afterthought.

"Most?" Celebion asked with a raised eyebrow.

Viridian seem to ponder something, "For some reason the Yuuzhan Vong don't and it worries me." he told him.

Celebion nodded in understanding, "What can one do with the Force?" he asked curiously.

Viridian turned to Celebion, "If I were to tell you all that, I'd be telling you for a week. But some of the things I can do is this: I can boost my physical prowess well beyond that of what a normal man can do, I can sense the emotions of beings and whether they be friend or foe, I can lift things without touching them, and I can put myself into a trance to heal myself faster. I also have slight precognition, so I can predict where an enemy will strike in battle. Though it is completely up to me on how to react." he explained, adding with a proud smile, "and that's just the tip of a very big iceberg."

Celebion was impressed, "Sound's a lot like what the wizards and sorcerers are capable of." Celebion remarked,

"So you know of the force? What do you call It?"

"Magic." Celebion answered with a shrug, causing Viridian to nearly sigh in annoyance.

"It's not magic." Viridian answered.

"To most, it is. To others, it is a gift from Iluvatar himself." Celebion told him.

Viridian raised an eyebrow at the name. Celebion saw this and understood.

"A thousand pardons. Iluvatar mean 'Father of all' in the common tongue." Celebion explained, "He created all living things."

"I thought you said the Valar did?"

"Iluvatar created the Elves and Men, and he allowed the Valar to create the other races. Morgoth got too arrogant and wanted to destroy everything and build it again in his image."

"So, this Iluvatar is essentially God." Viridian stated more than asked, to which Celebion nodded, "I see."

"I take it that you have some similar beliefs?" Celebion asked curiously as they approached Bagshot Row.

"In a manner of speaking, there are many cultures which do believe in a creator of the universe. I'm not saying they're not true or anything. I mean, the universe had to have come from somewhere." Viridian answered.

"I see. Dhe people of the Dunedain, Rohan, and Gondor do believe in the Valar and Iluvatar, and are at least on good terms with the elves, but..." he trailed off.

"But?" Viridian asked.

Celebion sighed "Men have always desired power, and many men were envious of the Elves and started to reject the Valar and Iluvatar."

Viridian listened intently, "Why were these men envious of the Elves?"

"Elves are immortal and don't die of old age." Celebion told him much to Viridian's surprise.

"I know of species that can live for thousands of years, but forever?" Viridian asked skeptically.

Celebion shrugged, "They have the blessing of Iluvatar. The Elves are almost magical, though. They will tell you that what they do isn't magic but their art."

"At least someone gets it. That's what I say when someone tells me I use 'Magic'," Viridian shook his head, to which Celebion chuckled, "These men... I sense that you hate them?" Viridian asked, and he was right. He could his enmity towards the men in question.

Celebion sighed, "I don't hate them for their beliefs, let me get that out of the way. I hate them because they helped the enemy destroy the Northern Kingdom. I hate them because they keep attacking our camps. I hate them because they took..." he trailed off not able to continue.

"Your daughter." Viridian finished. Celebion nodded in confirmation, "You said you've been searching for twelve years. How old was she when she was taken?" he asked.

"She was ten years old. She'd be twenty-two now." Celebion answered after a moment of silence.

"...she's fortunate." Viridian told him, Celebion looking at him in confusion, "to have a father like you. Who, no matter the odds, no matter what obstacle, would go to hell and back if it meant to get her back."

Celebion had tears in his eyes and he clenched his eyes shut to conceal them, "Thank you." he said quietly.

"You're welcome." they looked up to see Gandalf waiting with several people that Viridian assumed were dwarves, "Hello again, Gandalf!" Viridian called with a wave, the group turned to see him and Celebion walking towards them.

"Ah Viridian, Celebion. You're just in time." Gandalf greeted with a smile.

"Gandalf, you know these two?" one of the Dwarves asked. He looked young with brown hair and just like the others he had a beard that seemed to frame his face.

"What are they doing here?" another asked somewhat rudely, this one with red hair.

"They are here to dine with us, Gloin." Gandalf answered, "And yes, Ori. I do know them."

"Celebion of the Dunedain, at your service." Celebion introduced himself with a bow.

"I'm Viridian Mallory." Viridian introduced himself with a bow as well, mimicking Celebion, "at your service." he added.

The redheaded dwarf walked on up to them, "Gloin, at your service."

The others also introduced themselves in the same manner. Oin, an elderly dwarf with a strange horn on his ear. Dori, who had white hair that framed his face. Nori had brown hair and his beard was braided. Ori and Bifur had black hair with a bit of white sprouting out and a large beard that covered their chests. Bofur also had black hair and wore a hat on the top of his head. He also was arguably the friendliest of the lot. This left Bombur: the biggest and fattest dwarf that Viridian had seen so far. He had red hair and an extremely long beard that was braided and actually hung on his shoulders.

"So where is their leader?" Viridian asked Gandalf, seeing that Thorin wasn't there

Gandalf hummed in thought, "I do not know. Perhaps Balin knows." he answered, and the Dwarves started to knock on the round porthole door of a hobbit hole.

A very disgruntled voice replied from inside, "There's nobody home!" the voice shouted, "Go away and bother somebody else!"

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "Our host does know he's hosting a party right?" he asked

Before Gandalf could answer, "GO AWAY! There's far too many Dwarves in my dining room as it is. If this is some blotheads idea of a joke, well ohh ha ha, it is in very poor taste." he growled. Then the door opened and the dwarves that were all piled against it fell into the foyer in a big dogpile.

In the door frame stood a hobbit with his mouth open in surprise at how many dwarves were at his feet. He than looked up and adopted a peeved expression, "Gandalf." he growled in exasperation. Then he noticed two humans standing next to the wizard and he snorted, "Should I be expecting elves as well?" he asked in annoyance.

Gandalf turned to Viridian, "No, he does not." he answered his question with a smile.

Viridian bowed to the Hobbit in apology, "My apologies for any inconvenience I cause you tonight. I am Viridian, at your service."

The hobbit bowed in gratitude, "Bilbo Baggins at yours." this caused Celebion's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Celebion at your service," he introduced himself, "do you remember me?" he asked. Bilbo's brows furrowed in thought.

"Should I?" Bilbo asked.

"I don't blame you. We last saw each other twenty three years ago." Celebion said, than Bilbo's eyes widened in recognition.

"Of course, I remember you." Bilbo said in realization, "Oh where are my manners! Please come in." With that, the group all came into the house with Viridian, Celebion, and Gandalf all having to stoop a bit so as not to hit their heads.

"Again, Master Baggins, I apologize. I thought that you knew of the party." Viridian said sincerely.

Bilbo sighed, "Apology accepted. It's just I'd like to know my visitors before they come over." he told him.

"Well then, we shall exchange tales and get to know each other. Shall we?" Gandalf said with a smile. This was followed by some Dwarves cheering in agreement.

One of the Dwarves that Viridian hadn't met came up to him. He had black hair but unlike the others he didn't have a beard, "Kili at your service." the dwarf bowed.

"Viridian at yours." Viridian said with a smile.

"So Viridian are you here to see us off or…?" Kili trailed off.

"Oh, Gandalf invited me here. I'll explain more when I see Thorin and we're all together." Viridian answered

Kili nodded in acceptance and grasped his arm and shook it as a sign of welcome.

Then an elderly dwarf came to him, "Balin." he introduced himself,

"Viridian."

"I have so many questions but those can wait for now. Would you mind helping us set the table?" Balin asked.

Viridian looked over and saw dwarves coming in and out of the dining area and nodded, "Of course." he answered and made his way to the dining area.

Celebion and Bilbo were talking in the greeting area, "Is everything well with you?" BIlbo asked curiously.

"A lot has happened since we last seen each other, Bilbo." Celebion answered, "A'mael passed away." he said sadly.

Bilbo closed his eyes in pity, "I'm sorry."

"Thank you, she died delivering our daughter." Celebion told him.

Bilbo looked at him, "Is she alright?"

Celebion looked away, "Twelve years ago, she was abducted by the Black Numenoreans."

Bilbo tilted his head, unfamiliar with the name, "Don't worry about it, Bilbo. Just know that I have been searching for her all this time."

"And I hope you find her." Bilbo told him sincerely.

"... I hope so to." Celebion sighed.

Then Bilbo saw the Dwarves emptying his pantry. He stood up with a shout, "Put that back!" he repeated over and over again to no avail. Then he saw Bombur walking by with several blocks of cheese, "That's a tad excessive don't you think? Have you got a cheese knife?" he asked him.

Bofur happened to be walking by scoffed "Cheese knife, he eats it by the block!"

Bilbo continued to try and stop the dwarves from grabbing things. Viridian helped Gandalf with the silverware and setting the table.

"Excuse me mister, Gandalf," Nori said grabbing the wizards attention, "May I tempt you with a cup of Chamomile?" he asked as he poured the drink.

"No thank you, Nori. A little red wine for me I think." Gandalf told him as he walked into the intersection between the pantry and the dining room.

Viridian wondered what Chamomile was like. "Nori," he called getting the dwarf's attention, "May I have some of that Chamomile?" Nori nodded and handed him a cup and went back into the kitchen, "Thank you!" he called out, and followed Gandalf all the while sipping his tea, "Hmn, it's quite good. I'll have to find the recipe." he said to himself, and took one big gulp of it. "Ah," sighed in satisfaction.

Gandalf began to list off the dwarves. Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, Nori, Dori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, and Gloin... "We do appear to be one dwarf short."

"He's late is all. He traveled north to a meeting of our kin." Dwalin explained as he held a jug of some alcoholic beverage or so Viridian assumed, "He will come."

Gandalf sighed at that. "Mister Gandalf!" Nori called again, "A little glass of red wine as requested. It's got a fruity bouquets." he told him as he handed him the small glass.

"Ahh, cheers." and then proceeded to down the small serving in one gulp. He than went for more only to realise it was empty.

The party wound on. Viridian and Celebion made themselves comfortable at the table and ate with the dwarves though not as messy as them. Fili began walking on the table, "Who wants ale?" he asked offering some jugs as he went. Dwalin took one of the jugs and poured it down Oin's hearing horn, to which he responded by blowing it out; his face in utter indignation amidst the Dwarves laughter.

"Hey Viridian," Bofur called catching the young man's attention, "Have you had an ale before?" he asked.

"Can't say that I have. Never saw much point in it." Viridian answered honestly.

"Well tonight have some ale with us." Fili urged, and gave him a jug.

Viridian reluctantly accepted, "Thank you." he said and took the beverage. He stared at it for a moment, then he noticed all the dwarves were looking at him intently. With that Viridian shrugged and took a big swig of the ale. It burned his throat on its way down and he coughed a little, "It has a bite." he admitted with a splutter and took another drink, "I kind of like it." he added.

The dwarves all cheered and filled his jug again and they all downed their drinks in one gulp. Then they entered a burping contest with Nori being the victor. Viridian was laughing and having a good time. However, he looked over and saw a peeved Bilbo Baggins, sulking over in a corner. He than stood up and walked over to him, "Excuse me sir," Viridian said catching the shirelings attention, "Where is the fresher?" he asked, much to the halflings confusion.

"The what?" Bilbo asked

"The fresher. You know, where you relieve yourself?" Viridian explained.

"Oh." Bilbo said in realization, "it's down the hall on the right." he directed.

"Thank you." Viridian said gratefully and went to do his business.

A little bit later Viridian came out and went to sit back down in the dining room. Some time after that, dinner was over and now they were cleaning the table, "That is a doily not a dishwasher." Bilbo snorted and snatched the cloth from one of the dwarves.

"But it's full of holes." Bofur said.

"It's supposed to look like that! It's crochet." Bilbo explained.

"And a wonderful game it is to! If you got the balls for it." Bofur added as Bilbo put the doily away.

"Bebother and confusticate these Dwarves?" Bilbo exclaimed to himself, frustrated.

"My dear Bilbo what on earth is the matter?" Gandalf asked as he passed by.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked incredulously, "I'm surrounded by dwarves! What are they doing here?.

"Oh, they're quite a merry gathering once you get used to them." Gandalf told him.

"I don't want to get used to them! Look at the state of my kitchen! There's mud trod into the carpet! They pillaged the pantry! I won't even tell you what they've done in the bathroom! They've all but destroyed the plumbing!" he listed off, the last one made Viridian glad he used it first, "I don't understand what they're doing in my house!" Bilbo finished exasperated.

"Excuse me." Ori said coming in, "I'm sorry to interrupt but what should I do with my plate?" he asked.

Before Bilbo could answer FIli came in, "Don't worry, Ori. Give it to me." he beckoned. Ori handed him the plate then Fili threw it down the hall towards Kili who threw it into the kitchen.

"Take that back! Excuse me! That's my mother's Westfarthing pottery. It's over a hundred years old!" Bilbo shouted only to be ignored, than the dwarves started to bang their utensils on the table like drums, "Can you not do that? You'll blunt them."

"Oy, did you hear that lads?" Bofur asked, "He says we'll blunt the knives!" he finished mockingly.

Than they started singing, "Blunt the knives! Bend the forks! Smash the bottles and burn the corks! Chip the glasses and crack the plates! That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" As they sang they threw the dishes into the kitchen and Viridian had to admit it was fun, but the poor hobbit could only take so much, "Cut the cloth thread on the fat! Leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor! Splash the wine on every door! Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl! Pound them up with a thumping pole! When you're finished, if they're whole, send them down the hall to roll!" the fun kept going and even Viridian and Celebion were joining in the song "That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" They finished and laughed. The hobbit ran into the kitchen to see that all the dishes were cleaned and piled neatly much to his surprise, then a pounding on the door was heard and everything stilled.

"He is here." Gandalf said ominously.

With that all of them went to the door to greet the newcomer. The door opened to reveal yet another Dwarf. He had a familiar air about him; an air of authority and might, yet… despair. Viridian thought as someone who had lost something quite some time ago. He also saw that the other dwarves looked at him with respect and awe. Viridian had a feeling that this was Thorin.

"Gandalf." Thorin said in greeting "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way twice. I wouldn't have found it at all if it hadn't been for the mark on the door."

"There is no Mark on the door! It was painted a week ago." Bilbo said in denial.

"There is a mark. I put it there myself." Gandalf admitted, "Bilbo Baggins, Viridian Mallory and Celebion, meet the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield." Gandalf introduced them. Thorin looked at the two humans with a calculating gaze.

"Gandalf, I asked you to find a fourteenth member of the company not a fifteenth and certainly not a sixteenth." Thorin told him.

"I know but things have happened that forced me to find two more. I shall explain in a bit." Gandalf told Thorin apologetically.

Thorin sighed in acceptance, and studied the two humans, "I take it you, Celebion, are a member of the Dunedain Rangers, correct?" Thorin asked.

"Aye." Celebion confirmed.

"So you have fought before. What's your weapon, axe or sword?" he asked him.

"Sword, though I much prefer a bow and arrow." Celebion answered with a nod, Thorin nodded in acceptance then turned to Viridian.

"How about you? You look like a lad that still has yet to come of age." Thorin observed.

"Well you're not wrong. I'm only sixteen." he told him honestly, much to Thorin's surprise.

"I won't bring a boy on this quest." Thorin growled at Gandalf.

"This 'boy'," Viridian growled at Thorin, "is not an **ordinary** one. I have fought in two wars and survived the massacre of my people." His eyes flashed dangerously as he bored into Thorin's eyes.

"If you are telling the truth, boy, then what is your weapon of choice and where is it?" Thorin asked undeterred by the young human. 

"I use a sword but it is unlike anything you have seen," then he reached into his cloak and took out his lightsaber. At first the Dwarves all chuckled at the fact that it was only a hilt until he activated the weapon. His viridian green shined across the room like the brightest of flames, the faces of every man widened in fear… and in awe.

"What devilry is that?" Bofur asked slightly miffed. Only Gandalf and Celebion were not as intimidated.

"It is called a lightsaber. It is the weapon of a Jedi, and that is what I am." Viridian answered sadly as he deactivated the blade and put it away, "I will explain more later." he told him.

"If you are indeed a warrior and depending on what you have to say, I may allow you to come with us." Thorin said, then he turned to Bilbo, "So this is the Hobbit. Tell me, Master Baggins, have you done much fighting?"

"Pardon me?"

"Axe or sword, what is your weapon of choice?" Thorin reiterated.

"Well I do have some skill in conkers if you must know… but I fail to see why that's relevant." Bilbo answered.

"Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar." Thorin said in disdain. All the dwarves laughed in amusement, and they walked off into the dining room.

Everybody sat at the table and Thorin had some stew whipped up for him, "So Viridian, where is it that you come from?" Thorin asked the boy.

Viridian looked at Gandalf than at Celebion the both of them nodded, then he looked at Thorin, "I imagine that all of you probably saw the falling stars last night?" he asked.

"Aye, we did. But what does that have to do with you?" Thorin retorted.

"Those falling stars were pods that contained me and my crew." Viridian answered much to all the dwarves and the hobbit's confusion.

"Are you saying you come from a world among the stars?" Balin asked in disbelief.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Viridian confirmed, and said it in such a manner that he really didn't care if they doubted him.

"Let's say that you did come from another world, why would you come here?" Fili asked.

"I didn't come here by my design. We were shot down. Plus your world is in uncharted regions. It was lucky that we managed to find you at all." Viridian explained.

"I'm sorry, pods?" Bilbo asked.

"The equivalent would be a lifeboat for a ship at sea." Viridian explained.

"If our world as you claim is in uncharted regions, than why were you out here?" Thorin asked.

Viridian sighed, "I was trying to find a world to set up a base of operations." he explained, "and to find resources so we could keep the ship running. When we came here we encountered an enemy that attacked us with no provocation, and forced us to make an emergency landing and this was the nearest inhabited planet there was."

Most of what he said went over nearly everyone's heads, but they understood the gist of it, "I see. Say we believe you. Why do you want to join the company?" Thorin asked.

"There are two reasons. One, so I can find my crew hopefully on the road. Second, I am a Jedi, and a Jedi is meant to help someone in need. The way I see it, your home was taken from you and I'd like to help reclaim it if possible." Viridian added.

"And how are you going to do that? What skills do you have to offer that these Dwarves don't have?" Thorin asked.

"My weapon can cut through most anything. I can sense when danger comes close, and…" his weapon floated from its resting place and hovered right in front of him much to everyone's surprise excluding Gandalf and Celebion slightly, "I have powers that is second only to Gandalf here as far as I know."

"So, you're a wizard?" Bilbo asked, this caused Viridian to sigh.

"Yes. I'm a wizard from another world. We call ourselves Jedi though." he explained.

"Well than so you use Magic," Thorin stated much to Viridian's annoyance, "why should I take you with me."

"If I may?" Gandalf started, Viridian nodded in agreement, "Thorin when the star fell I made my way to its crash site in the Barrow Downs. It turns out that it was indeed a vessel crafted by someone, and I set about to find the occupant. I found him doing battle surrounded by several Orc like creatures." he told them and nodded at Viridian.

"What do you mean Orc like?" Ori asked confused.

"They had a similar appearance to Orcs but these creatures were not Orcs. They came in strange flying machines and surrounded this warrior. That and the fact that they attacked him in broad daylight also tells me that they were not Orc." Gandalf explained.

The company all listened intently, "He managed to kill most of them and the ranger there came to his aid and slayed two of them. Then they captured the last one and I helped interrogate him."

"And what did he say?" Oin asked.

"They call themselves the Yuuzhan Vong, and they come from another galaxy." Viridian explained, the Dwarves, Hobbit, and Human looked at him in confusion, "They come from another world further than me." he simplified.

"Gandalf, are you vouching for him?" Thorin asked the wizard seriously.

"Yes I am." Gandalf answered in a tone that showed he meant it.

"Very well. Balin draw up two more contracts." Thorin beckoned.

"Aye." Balin agreed, from there Balin asked how the meeting in Ered Luin went.

"They will not come." Thorin sighed, the Dwarves all looked bewildered as well, "They said that this quest is ours and ours alone."

"You're going on a quest?" Bilbo asked, he had a feeling that's what it was but he wanted to hear it for himself.

"Bilbo, my dear fellow, may you let us have a little more light?" Gandalf asked. The hobbit nodded, and went to get a candle, "Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak." Gandalf explained as he produced a map that had a dragon flying over a mountain.

"The Lonely Mountain." Bilbo read.

"Oin has read the portents and the portents say it is time!" Gloin exclaimed.

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold," Oin stated. Viridian noticed that Gandalf ignited his finger to light his pipe, then he started to quote something, "when the birds of yore return to Erebor the reign of the beast will end." Viridian than saw that Gandalf was trying to blow out his little flame. Viridian smiled. His friend Daniel was a prodigy when it came to force abilities and he had developed a keen proficiency with Pyrokinesis.

"Uh, what beast?" Bilbo asked a touch of nervousness entering his voice.

"Oh that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible. Chiefest and Greatest Calamity of our age." Bofur answered, then continued, "Airborne fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals." he listed off.

"Yes I know what a Dragon is." Bilbo cut in.

Abruptly Ori stood up, "I'm not afraid. I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of Dwarvish Iron right up his jacksie!" he exclaimed with fake confidence. Someone told him to sit down which he did.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, and we number just thirteen, and not thirteen of the best nor brightest." Balin explained, much to the others displeasure.

Fili slammed his hand down on the table, "We may be few in number, but we're fighters! All of us to the last dwarf!"

"And you forget we have two wizards in our company. Gandalf would have slayed a hundred dragons in his time, and Viridian probably has as well." Kili added.

"Hate to break it to you but I have never seen a dragon I did fight a rancor once." Viridian told the dwarves.

"And what is a Rancor?" Celebion asked.

"A nasty predator from the world…" he started "you wouldn't care where it was from. Let's just say it can devour a man whole and is protected by a thick hide that very few weapons will get through, and they are big. Very big."

"And what about you, Gandalf? How many dragons have you killed," Kili asked the elderly wizard.

"Oh well... not hundreds." he stated.

"How many, then?" Gandalf smoked his pipe but didn't answer.

"Come on give us a number!" someone shouted as Gandalf coughed up smoke. All the other Dwarves also clamored to get his response.

Than Thorin shouted something in a language that Viridian couldn't place but it made the Dwarves all settle down, "If we have read these signs, do you not think others would have read them too?!" he half asked, half bellowed at them. Their silence was their answer, "Rumors have begun to spread. The Dragon, Smaug hasn't been seen for sixty years. Eyes look east to the mountain assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor?" he asked impassionately with a raised fist, the dwarves all cheered their answer.

"You forget the front gate is sealed." Balin reminded, "There is no way into the mountain."

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true." Gandalf stated as he revealed a key.

Thorin seemed to be taken aback by that, "How came you by this?" he asked. Viridian could sense Gandalf wince slightly at a memory being brought up that he wished wasn't.

"It was given to me by your father, Thrain, for safe keeping." Gandalf stated. The Dwarves were all surprised by this news, "It is yours now." he added and handed it to him.

"If there is a key, there must be a door." Fili replied. Viridian was tempted to say 'way to state the obvious' but chose not to.

Bilbo looked at the map for a moment and noticed that the hand on the left hand side was pointing at something. He followed it and then pointed at the small opening, "Is that it?" he asked.

Gandalf looked at where he was pointing, "It is indeed, my dear Bilbo." he confirmed with a smile, "It is a door to a passage to the lower halls." he explained.

"There's another way in." Kili stated excitedly.

"Well if we can find it, but Dwarf doors are invisible when closed." Gandalf brought up, and Viridian resisted the urge to slam his face on the table, and Gandalf sighed, "The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map," he explained, much to Viridian pleasure, "and I don't have the skill to find it." he admitted to which Viridian felt the same urge again, "but there are others in Middle Earth who can." he added, "The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth and no small amount of courage, but if we are careful and clever I believe it can be done."

"That's why we need a burglar!" Ori exclaimed

"Hmn, a good one too an expert I'd imagine." Bilbo stated.

"And are you?" Gloin asked, Bilbo looked behind him to see if there was someone else that he was talking to.

"Am I what?" Bilbo asked.

"He said he's an expert, hehe!" Oin misheard.

"ME?! No no no," he exclaimed, "I'm not a burglar. I've never stolen a thing in my life." he added.

"Well, I'm afraid I have to agree with Master Baggins," Balin started, "he's hardly burglar material."

"Nope." Bilbo agreed

"Aye. The wild is no place for gentle folk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves." Dwalin added, and Bilbo nodded in agreement.

"He's just fine." someone countered and the room descended into a mess of voices.

"Enough!" Gandalf stated as the room got noticeably darker, "If I say Bilbo Baggins is a Burglar, than a Burglar he is!" he shouted in a way that left no room for discussion. The room got noticeably lighter and Gandalf continued "Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact they can pass unseen by most if they choose, and while the dragon is accustomed to the scent of Dwarves and Men, the scent of a hobbit is all but unknown to him. Which gives us a distinct advantage."

"But what about Viridian? He's from another world! Who's to say that he's of men." Bilbo protested while pointing at the young man.

"I am human, sorry." Viridian apologised. He could bring up that he had three aliens with him but the subtle look from Gandalf told him to keep that on the down low for the moment.

Bilbo seemed to deflate at that, "But..." he protested weakly.

Gandalf then turned to Thorin, "You asked me to find you a fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen mister Baggins, and circumstances has forced me to find two more in Viridian and Celebion. There is more to them than appearances suggest and they got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself." he added that last part quietly, "You must trust me on this.".

"Very well." Thorin said, the wizard was very persuasive after all, "We will do it your way."

"No no" Bilbo silently begged.

"Give him the contract." Thorin told Balin.

"It's just the usual, summary of out of pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth." he explained, "I'll draw yours up soon they should be ready tomorrow." he told the two humans.

Bilbo took the contract, "Did you say funeral arrangements?" he asked as he read the contract

Thorin then whispered something to Gandalf that Viridian couldn't hear.

"'Terms: cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any,' hmn seems fair, 'present company shall not be liable for any injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof including, but not limited to, Lacerations… Evisceration… Incineration?'" he asked. Viridian had to admit it was a disturbing thought.

"Aye. He'll melt the flesh right off your bones in the blink of an eye." Bofur stated. Bilbo then started to breath heavily and whimper. In fact Viridian recognised that he was having a panic attack.

"Are you alright?" Viridian asked concerned.

"I just need a minute."

"Think furnace with wings." Bofur started

"Shut up." Viridian interrupted the dwarf, "You're not helping."

"Just telling him what to expect." Bofur said.

"Well don't. Sure he should understand the risks but you don't need to explain it like that!" Viridian countered he than turned to Bilbo, "It's very simple. If he hits you, you're dead." he told him.

Bilbo stood straight up and took a deep breath, "Nope." then collapsed. Viridian then slammed his head on the table out of frustration.

"Well that didn't help either." Bofur remarked.

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Viridian muttered as he stood up with Gandalf and went to go help the hobbit. After some prodding he managed to wake him up and helped him to his chair, "Sorry about that, I'm used to dealing with soldiers." he apologised to the hobbit.

"I'll be alright. Just let me sit quietly for a moment." Bilbo assured them.

"You've been sitting quietly for far too long." Gandalf rebutted, "tell me, when did Doilies and your mother's dishes become so important to you?" he asked, before Bilbo could answer, the Wizard continued, "I remember a Hobbit who was always running off, searching for elves in the woods. Who would stay out late, come home after dark trailing mud, twigs, and fireflies. A young hobbit who would have liked nothing better than to find out what was beyond the borders of the Shire. The world is not in your books or maps. It's out there." he told him.

"I can't just go off running into the blue. I am a Baggins of Bag-end." Bilbo told him.

"You are also a Took." Gandalf countered. Viridian's eyes widened upon hearing that, "Did you know that your great, great, great, great uncle Bullroarer Took was so large he could ride a real horse?" Gandalf asked. BIlbo nodded, "Yes, well, he could. In the battle of the Green Fields he charged the goblin ranks. He swung his club so hard it knocked the Goblin king's head clean off and it sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole. Thus the battle was won, and the game of golf invented at the same time." Gandalf told him, and Viridian smiled at the tale, "You like that?" he asked to young man.

"I heard it told earlier today. It's a good story." Viridian said.

"Indeed." Gandalf nodded in agreement, than he turned his attention to Bilbo, "you'll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back."

Bilbo scoffed, "Can you promise that I will come back?" he asked

Gandalf seemed to hesitate for a moment, "No." he answered honestly, "and if you do, you'll not be the same." he added.

"That's what I thought." Bilbo said, "Sorry Gandalf, I can't sign this." with that Bilbo stood up, "you've got the wrong hobbit." and left the room.

Viridian looked at Gandalf, "Should we force this on him?" Viridian asked the Wizard.

"It would be good for him." Gandalf answered.

In another part of Bag-end, Bilbo walked by Balin and Thorin, "It appears we have lost our burglar." Balin sighed, "Probably for the best. The odds were always against us. After all, what are we?" he asked, "Merchants, miners, tinkers, toy makers," he chuckled, "hardly the stuff of legend."

Celebion who was nearby, listened to the conversation,

"There are a few warriors amongst us." Thorin reminded him.

"Old warriors." Balin sighed

"I would take each and every one of these dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills. For when I called upon them they answered," then he saw Viridian walk by, "and even two humans have answered the call. Loyalty, honor, and a willing heart. I can ask no more than that."

"You don't have to do this." Balin started, "You have a choice. You've done honorably by our people. You have built a new life for us in the Blue Mountains, a life of peace and plenty. A life that is worth more than all the gold in Erebor." he told him.

"From my grandfather to my father this has come to me." Thorin stated as he produced the key, "they dreamt of a day when the dwarves of erebor would reclaim their homeland. There is no choice, Balin. Not for me." he added.

Balin nodded in understanding, "Then we are with you, laddie." Thorin looked over and saw Celebion and he nodded, to which he returned, "We will see it done."

Viridian and Celebion joined the dwarves around the hearth when they began to sing, the bass and baritone bouncing heavily in dim of the air. The cold reverberating, like echo in the wind.

Far over the misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day

To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,

While hammers fell like ringing bells

In places deep, where dark things sleep,

In hollow halls beneath the fells.

For ancient king and elvish lord

There many a gleaming golden hoard

They shaped and wrought, and light they caught

To hide in gems on hilt of sword.

On silver necklaces they strung

The flowering stars, on crowns they hung

The dragon-fire, in twisted wire

They meshed the light of moon and sun.

Far over the misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away, ere break of day,

To claim our long-forgotten gold.

Goblets they carved there for themselves

And harps of gold; where no man delves

There lay they long, and many a song

Was sung unheard by men or elves.

The pines were roaring on the height,

The winds were moaning in the night.

The fire was red, it flaming spread;

The trees like torches blazed with light.

The bells were ringing in the dale

And men they looked up with faces pale;

The dragon's ire more fierce than fire

Laid low their towers and houses frail.

The mountain smoked beneath the moon;

The dwarves they heard the tramp of doom.

They fled their hall to dying fall

Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.

Far over the misty mountains grim

To dungeons deep and caverns dim

We must away, ere break of day,

To win our harps and gold from him!

At some point during the song the two humans joined in by humming the tune. When it was done, Thorin got up with a groan, "We'll be going to the inn and sleep there for the night." he announced to the dwarves he than turned to the two humans, "Do you have rooms?" he asked.

"Yes we took care of that, thank you" Celebion told him. Thorin nodded and the Dwarves began to file out, leaving only the humans and wizard behind.

"I wish to write a thank you note for our host." Viridian said abruptly.

"As you wish." Gandalf said, then he noticed that Viridian hadn't done anything to try and write anything, "Is there a problem?" he asked him.

"I don't know how to write your written language." Viridian admitted sheepishly, much to the others amusement.

"I'll help you." Celebion assured him and they wrote a thank you letter to Bilbo. After it was done the trio left the house and went to the green dragon inn for the night.

(location the village of Bree)

It had taken all day for Jak, Ulra, Jasmine, Du, Janus, and Kes to reach the village. That, combined with getting attacked by some rather nasty looking humanoids and very large wolves, the group was happy when they saw the village. When they arrived at the gate Jak knocked on it. Du and Jasmine wore heavy cloaks to hide the fact that they weren't human. The gate watcher opened the small door and saw the man in full body armor along with several other people, "Good evening, can I help you?" he asked.

Jak sighed in relief they spoke basic atleast, "Yes sir, my friends and I need a place to stay for the night. Can you let us in?" he asked politely.

The man closed the small door and opened a bigger door, "Please come in, I take it you got attacked on the road?" he asked.

"Yes." Jak confirmed.

The gatekeeper nodded in understanding, "Here some coin. It will get you a hot meal and bed at the Prancing Pony." he told him and handed him some money.

"Thank you very much, good sir." Jak said gratefully, "Farewell" he told him and they walked through the village to the inn. When they entered, the innkeeper saw them.

"Good evening masters. How can I help you? Are you looking for some rooms?" he asked.

"Yes. We need three rooms and some hot meals, please?" Jak requested.

The innkeeper nodded, "Follow me." he beckoned and led the group to their rooms. Jak and Ulra in one, Kes and Jasmine in another, and Du and Janus in the final room, "Your meals will be ready shortly." the innkeeper told them.

"Thank you very much." Jak said gratefully, as he began taking his armor off, "I wonder how Viridian and Xey are?" he asked aloud.

"They'll be fine." Ulra said as she too began to shed her armor and changing into her sleep wear, "Those things that attacked us were easy to kill." she added.

"It's not those things I'm worried about. It's these 'Vong'." Jak sighed, "and we don't know what other dangers there are on this world. Plus Xey is a bit vulnerable right now." he added.

Ulra smiled at him, "I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you."

Jak raised an eyebrow and smirked, "and what is that?" he asked her.

"Hmm, ask me later. I lost the reason." she teased. He just chuckled.

"Alright then." he replied. A knock sounded signifying that their meal was there. They ate, then the went to sleep all of them waiting to see what the new day would bring.

(location, the cluster crash site five miles north of Bree.)

A group of soldiers armed with the standard imperial weapons and armor investigated the crash site, "Wolf Den, do you know of any Imperial ships scheduled to arrive in the past forty-eight hours?" the leader asked through his comm. He was wearing slightly bulkier armor and on his belt was the hilt of a lightsaber and in his hand was the standard E-11 blaster carbine.

" _Negative Captain Mallory, why do you ask?_ " the communications officer asked.

"I think we have a bit of trouble." the man now identified as Mallory reported, "we found some escape pods. Six to be exact. I guess the crew abandoned ship. They could be pirates or insurrectionist." he added.

" _This is Commander Libel. We'll be going to alert. I want you to track these survivors down, Raven, and find out why they crashed. Do not start a fight understand?"_ the commander asked.

"Roger Wolf Den, Raven out." the man then turned to one of the soldiers that approached him. The trooper in question wore armor styled after mandalorians, but with the 501st Legion's marking. He had the standard E-11 with a knife on it, turning it into a bayonet. He also carried several knives on his person, and a lightsaber as well. Though this one that he got from killing a jedi, unlike his superior who got his from the Imperial mass production line for the force users and non force users allowed to carry the weapon. While the soldier wasn't one of those individuals Mallory didn't care. What the higher ups didn't know didn't hurt them.

"What's the word sir?" the soldier asked. It was the voice of a Clone of Jango Fett that he had come to know as Jaing.

"Our orders are to find the survivors and find out how they came here... without a firefight preferably."

Jaig nodded in understanding, "yes sir. You heard him men let's move out." he called out to the others, "I'd say they would have made their way to Bree, sir." he said.

Mallory nodded in agreement, "I concur, let's move out." he ordered, with that the squad made their way to the village of Bree.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed**


	4. The Greatest Adventure

**AN: I'm back with another chapter, I hope you all enjoy**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and all that good stuff**

 **Addendum: this chapter has a song from the cartoon adaptation of the hobbit the song can be found on YouTube I recommend that you check it out, it's called "The Greatest Adventure" yep I did that :P.**

 **Addendum addendum: this has been edited with the help of my good friend Jacob Sailer I recommend you check his stories out for now I hope you enjoyed the superior draft of this chapter.**

 **Chapter 3 - The Greatest Adventure**

Viridian felt the rays of the sun hit his face as he stirred. He opened his eyes and sat up; digging through his pocket and pulling out his Datapad. He looked at it for a moment then his eyes widened, "You're kidding me!" he nearly shouted in disbelief. He heard a knock at the door.

"Viridian," Celebion's voice called, "is everything alright?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Viridian sighed in exasperation as he press the stop record button 'I can't believe I forgot to stop the recording.' he thought to himself. Then he picked himself up and got himself dressed; making his way to the dining hall where the Dwarves and Celebion were all eating breakfast. He took a seat with Celebion, and Fili and Kili, "Does anyone know where Gandalf is?" he asked as he pulled himself a bowl of something.

"He had to go take care of some business. He'll be here to meet us momentarily." Balin answered the boy.

Kili looked like he was about to burst and Viridian sensed he wanted to ask him something, so he told him to do so.

Kili sighed in relief, "...What are your friends like?" Kili inquired curiously.

Viridian smiled fondly and answered, "Well I travel with a group of eight. Most of whom are Jedi like myself, and one of them is a Mandalorian."

"What are their names?"

"Well there's Jak, he's the oldest. He is a warrior and a good man to know. Then there is Ulra, she is a Jedi like myself but her talents lie in healing. Then there is Du, he is perhaps my best friend who I know is still alive… somehow," Viridian swallowed a lump in his throat but kept going, "next is Kes. She practically loves maps and codes. You name it, she'll decipher it. Then there is Jasmine, our hunter and scout. I bet she'd give you a run for your money, Celebion," Viridian grinned, the older man smiled and chuckled. Viridian continued:

"Then there is Xey. She's a fine warrior herself and is definitely a better swordsman than me. But… well, despite that, I see her as my younger sister. And last, but not least, there's Janus. He's perhaps the most passionate warrior scholar you'll know. He actually managed to utilise his Jedi powers without any formal training, but given the fact that his home has been subjugated twice now… well, it's understandable." Viridian sighed, "and those are my companions. Any questions?"

"Are they all fighters?" Kili asked.

"Aye, we fought in the same wars together. Though the first one, Jak was on the enemy's side for a while. Janus didn't actually participate in that war either."

"This Jak... was your enemy?" Thorin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He made bad decisions and got involved with a group of extremist who wished to overthrow the government… you know what. He can tell you the story himself when you meet him."

"That seems unlikely." Thorin pointed out.

"You never know." Viridian smiled. Thorin couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"You say you fought in two wars. What were they called?" Dwalin asked curiously.

"The first one was called the Clone Wars, and the other one... well, we don't have a name for it." Viridian answered sheepishly, "The first one was the bloodiest war in our history. It's sad really, all our enemy wanted was to secede from the Republic. Well, I did support that... at first. But when they started to commit such heinous war crimes... I lost all sympathy for them."

"What kind of war crimes?"

"They butchered countless amounts of people. People who couldn't defend themselves or too weak to fight them." Viridian growled, his eyes narrowed with a stern gaze.

"Wait these were other humans? I would expect that from Orcs but humans?" Ori asked surprised. Sure, it wasn't unheard of for a human to be ruthless killers but it was rare.

"They didn't use humans in their military, they used machines. Droids that don't feel, only do what they are told and they will follow it without question. They have no free will only programing."

"Programming?" Nori asked.

Viridian winced slightly. It was going to be tough trying to explain certain things to these people. But he would certainly try, "Okay, are you familiar with a Golem?" Viridian asked. The group all nodded, "Well, that's basically what a droid is. Golems are created to carry out the will of their creator. That's what programing is."he tried to explain.

"I see." Thorin commented with a nod, "it sounds very similar to what the first dark lord did to his creatures. They have no free will. None. They're just monsters that need to be destroyed."

"Exactly," Viridian said, "wait, what?" he asked surprised about that last part Thorin mentioned.

"It sounds a lot like indoctrination. That is what Morgoth did to the Orcs." Balin told him.

"Indoctrination is another word for programming, except golems can't offer any resistance. They are built by men to fulfill a purpose." Viridian explained. 'Morgoth sounds very similar to the kaminoans in how they treated their creations,' he thought to himself. He quickly shook that thought away.

"We should get moving. We can talk more on the road." Thorin announced. With that everyone stood up and grabbed the final things they needed and loaded them onto their steeds.

"That battle armor is strange." Ori said upon seeing the armor beneath Viridian's robes.

"Indeed. It belonged to the Vong warrior that we interrogated." Celebion informed him.

"It does?" the young dwarf asked as Viridian came by.

"Yeah, it is interesting piece of equipment. It's some kind of crab they use. Their shells were strong enough to stop my lightsaber." Viridian told him, much to the Dwarves surprise.

"I thought you said your weapon could cut through anything!?" Thorin scowled.

"I said most anything. There are some minerals that my weapon can't cut." Viridian informed him, and Thorin calmed down a bit.

"I'm sorry I misheard you." he apologised.

"It's alright. I do know of some materials that my weapon cannot cut nor penetrate. The ones I do know of are Beskar or Mandalorian Iron, Phyric, Song Steel, and Crotosis." Viridian counted off the fingers of his hand. At this, Thorin's brows furrowed.

"I have never heard of any of those metals in Middle Earth." Thorin stated.

"Well I would be surprised if you did find Beskar on this world. So far the only world it has been discovered on is Mandalore. Kind of contributed to the Mandalorians prowess in combat. They used to forge their armor and swords out of it... well, for the higher rankers anyway." Viridian explained, "it is possible that some of these minerals exist here but you call them something else."

"The laddie is correct, but that hardly matters now." Balin cut in.

"Are we ready?" Thorin asked, receiving several ayes, "Good. We leave now. Gandalf will meet us-"

"I'm here Thorin." the wizard called.

"-Here." Thorin finished, "so, did you go to see our burglar?" he asked him.

"I'll wager that he'll show up." Gandalf said.

"How much?" Nori asked smirking, with that nearly all of the Dwarves except Balin and Thorin making bets on whether or not Bilbo would arrive. Kili, Fili, Gandalf and Bofur bet that he would show up.

"Damn, if I had any money I'd bet on Bilbo coming with us." Viridian said, "I'll bet a portion of my share that he'll come." He said after a moment of thought.

"As you wish." Gloin called.

Viridian turned to Celebion, "What about you?" he asked.

"I don't gamble. I see no point in it, though I believe he will come." Celebion told him.

"Fair enough." with that they started to make their way out of the Shire. After some time they heard someone shouting behind him. Viridian smiled. He recognised the voice.

"Wait!" the company stopped and turned to see Bilbo running after them with a piece of paper in hand. He ran up to Balin, panting like he was going to puke, "I signed it." he told him and handed the contract to the Dwarf.

Balin inspected it with a monocle, "Everything appears to be in order. Bilbo Baggins, welcome to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." He said welcomingly and most of the other Dwarves cheered in welcome.

Thorin just sighed and began to move forward again, grumbling, "Give him a pony."

"Uh no, that won't be necessary! I can do just fine on foot." Bilbo tried to explain only for two of the Dwarves to pick him up and plumb him onto one of the spare ponies.

As the group rode on, Bilbo saw that the Dwarves were throwing small sacks at each other he turned to Gandalf, "What are they doing?" he asked.

"They took wagers on whether you would show up." The Wizard answered with a humored smile.

The hobbit didn't know how to respond to that but nodded in understanding, "And what did you bet on?" Bilbo found himself asking.

Less than a second after the question was asked, Gandalf caught a sack of Gold and chuckled, "My dear Bilbo, I never doubted you for a moment."

Bilbo then turned to the humans, "and what about you two?" He asked them.

Viridian then held up his hand and a sack of coins came into it, "What do you think?" He asked him with a smirk.

Celebion however didn't and Bilbo began to think he didn't think he would come. But Celebion shook his head, "I didn't bet, Bilbo. Didn't see the need to swindle these fine Dwarves out of their money." He answered with a smile. Some of the Dwarves grumbled but didn't object.

Abruptly Bilbo sneezed, "Agh, it's all this horse hair. I'm having a reaction." He laughed it off as he fiddled around looking for something. His eyes widened in horror, "Wait stop we have to turn around!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"Oh Bilbo, what on earth is the matter?" Gandalf asked exasperated. Viridian waited for the answer.

"Forgot my handkerchief." Bilbo answered. Viridian honestly felt the urge to smack the hobbit silly but restrained himself knowing that this kind of expedition was unusual for most hobbits.

Bofur had a solution and ripped a piece of clothing and threw it at the hobbit. Bilbo caught it and looked at it as if to say 'really'.

Thorin ordered the company to keep moving and they did so at a reasonable pace, "You'll have to do without handkerchiefs and a good many other comforts Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire. Home is now behind you and the world is ahead." Gandalf told him as they rode on.

After some time Bilbo was getting a little bored, "Uh, does anyone know any traveling songs?" He asked curiously.

Celebion chuckled "I know one." He stated.

"Well please, good sir, let's hear it." Bofur encouraged, and the other Dwarves cheered for him to sing as did Gandalf.

Celebion smiled, "Very well." He cleared his throat.

 _The greatest adventure is what lies ahead,_

 _Today and Tomorrow are yet to be said_

 _The chances the changes are all yours to make_

 _The mold of your life is in your hands to break._

 _The greatest adventure is there if you're bold_

 _Let go of the moment that life makes you hold_

 _To measure the meaning can make you delay_

 _It's time you stop thinking and wasting the day._

 _A man who's a dreamer and never takes leave_

 _Who thinks of a world that is just make believe_

 _Will never know passion_

 _Will never know pain_

 _Who sits by the window_

 _Will one day see rain._

 _The greatest adventure is what lies ahead_

 _Today and tomorrow are yet to me said_

 _The chances the changes are all yours to make_

 _The mold of your life is in your hands to break._

The company enjoyed it so much that they practically begged Celebion to teach them the song so that they all could sing it too.

(Location Bree)

Janus woke with a start a thin sheet of sweat covering his forehead "We need to get out of here!" He urged, causing Du to spring awake in alarm.

"What's the matter!?" Du asked worried.

"Something draws near." Janus stated.

Du didn't bother asking what it was. He sprang into action and got the others. In seconds, they were up, getting their gear stored in their packs and ready to get out of town, and hopefully avoid whatever was coming. Little did they know that it was approaching the gate at that moment.

A knock came from the gate and the gatekeeper opened the small door to see seven men all dressed in white armor with one marked with blue stripes. It was in the same style as one of the guests from last night. The lead man wore a bulkier set than the others. They all held what the keeper assumed were weapons. But these were of the like he had never seen before. Then again, so did the others, "Good morning, sirs. Can I help you?" the keeper asked politely.

"Yes, my good sir. I'm Captain Jane Mallory, and we're looking for a group of six individuals we think they may have passed through here."

The keeper nodded, "Your man there," he stated pointing at Jaing, "the lead man from last night had armor very similar except it was grey and black." the keeper explained.

"What would a Mandalorian be doing all the way out here?" one of the troopers asked, prompting another to shrug.

"One of his companions also had a similar set of armor. They said that they were attacked on the road."

Jane nodded, "I see. Can you tell us where they are now We have a few questions for them."

"Are they a danger?" the keeper asked concerned.

"That is yet to be determined." Jane told him.

"They are at the inn of the Prancing Pony," the keeper replied and opened the door.

"Thank you, good sir. Have a good day." Jane bid the man farewell and led the troopers to the Prancing Pony. As they approached, they saw the group exit with a man in Mandalorian armor leading them. "Stop right there!" Jane shouted, raising his weapon into a ready stance. The group of six looked over at them, eyes wide and then ran in the other direction. The Imperials gave chase.

"They must be insurrectionist." Jaing suggested in their comm.'s as they ran. One of the troopers took aim and fired. Suddenly, a boy with short black hair grabbed the hilt of a lightsaber. He activated its cyan blade and deflected the bolt, sending it upward. "Jedi!" the Trooper shouted in disbelief.

Jane cursed, "Perfect. This just got complicated." he sighed. They ran till they had them cornered. The six of them all turned to face the Imps, their weapons drawn. A crowd gathered and they all stared at Jasmine and Du who had pulled their hoods down to reveal their less than human appearance, and their lightsaber blades also drew their attention. "There is nowhere to run! Lay down your arms and I promise no harm will come to you." Jane commanded. The human boy snorted.

"And what good is that? The word of an Imp, especially of the Jedi Killer Corps?" he shouted. Jane sighed with resignation. The Corps was the Empire's response to the still rampant Jedi threat: soldiers trained to kill force users. They worked in conjunction with the Inquisition, the Emperor's personal cadre of Dark Side warriors. Jane had qualified for it and was drafted into the Corps despite not wanting to for personal reasons.

"I'm a soldier, not an assassin. I have no wish to harm you. I have orders to find out how you got here and why you abandoned ship." Jane explained.

The Mandalorian spoke up all the while keeping his guns trained on the Imperials, "We were attacked by a species called the Yuuzhan Vong, heard of them?" he asked.

Jane shook his head, "No I haven't," he started, then he had a thought, "do they use molten rock as their projectiles?" he asked. He could tell Jaing wanted nothing more than to blast the Jedi away, and while technically that was what they were supposed to do, Jane didn't give a damn about that particular order.

"Yes they do." Jak answered.

"Well, now we have a name at least." Jane muttered to himself, "Look, we need to take you back to base for further questioning. Please, lower your weapons."

"Not going to happen, buckethead!" the boy growled. One didn't need to be force sensitive to tell he absolutely hated them, and he would never trust them.

"Sir, Order 66 says that we must use lethal force. It's impossible to capture a Jedi, and even if you do, they're almost guaranteed to escape." Jaing snarled as he kept his blaster pointed at the group.

"Jaing, I don't care what Order 66 says. They have information on the Far Outsiders and that would prove beneficial to us." Jane said in a tone that left no room for arguments.

Jak turned to Janus and gave a subtle nod. Janus than called upon the Force. Janus had a talent for an ability called 'Alter Environment' which allowed him to alter the whether in the area. The practical benefits allowed the user to create a gale, a rain storm and even summon a lightning bolt. Masters of the ability could summon a pillar of fire but Janus wasn't that good yet.

In less than a second, a bolt of lightning crashed right in the center of the Imperial formation. Their armor protected them from the electrical discharge but because lightning bolts tend to displace the air, the loud boom that followed as the air rapidly rushed back into the area knocked the Imperials off their feet and disorientated them. With that the group of six bolted and ran past the troopers.

"Split up! We'll meet up outside of town!" Jak ordered, and the group branched off in their own directions.

Jane shook his head to get his bearings, "Is everyone alright?" he asked the men under his command.

A chorus of 'Yes sirs' came from other the six men, "Alright then, let's get going. Capture them if able. Kill them only if you must." Jane said, the last part with a heavy heart.

"You heard him, men! Go get 'em!" Jaing bellowed as he and the others stood up to chase them down. Jane meanwhile made his way to the main entrance of the town to block off their escape.

Janus ran through the town, vaulting over carts and dodging any civilians that happened to come in his path. He looked behind him and saw a stormtrooper following him. He stopped running and turned to face him. Activating his cyan blade, the trooper fired at the young Jedi, and he deflected the bolts away harmlessly. He then reached out with his telekinesis and seized the trooper and pulled him onto his his blade. Impaled, he let out a grunt of pain.

The noise deeply disturbed Janus. As he deactivated his blade and put the trooper down gently, he then removed his helmet. The trooper wasn't a clone of Fett, that much he could tell. He was looking at Janus eyes wide with fear and breathing heavily, "I only saw your helmet and rifle." Janus said gently he looked at the utility belt and saw a holo device.

He removed it and activated it. The trooper feebly tried to stop him, "Calm down, save your strength." Janus urged. The picture was of a woman with and a young boy... she was obviously with child. Janus closed his eyes in sadness, "I'm sorry."

The Trooper tried to speak, but instead he only coughed up blood.

"What's your name?" Janus asked.

"C-cyrus K-kkane." the trooper answered.

"Janus Lynn." the Jedi answered. The man nodded feebly and began losing consciousness. As he died in his arms, Janus pursed his lips and closed the man's eyes and bowed his head, "May you find peace, Cyrus Kane." Janus stated.

He looked up and saw a group of civilians looking at him and the dead trooper. With that, Janus stood up and casted one more look at Cyrus's face. Another face to plague his nightmares. He activated the man's emergency beacon and took off running.

Du bolted for the main exit and saw the Jedi Killer in the way. He activated his blade and moved in to strike him down. Jane activated his own white blade and parried the blow. Du knew that if he didn't get past the man, another Imp would come up behind him and shoot him. However just before that could happen the man was thrown out of the way by the arrival of his friend, Janus, who used the force to pin Jane to the wall.

With that, Du held his ground and defended Janus while they waited for the others. It didn't take long, the group all ran towards them. One by one till they were all out. Janus was about to kill Jane, but he was hit by a vision of this man and Viridian standing side by side ready for battle. This caused him to hesitate, then a bolt whizzed by and Janus dropped the man and ran out the town gate. The Jedi then used their powers and slammed the gate shut.

One of the troopers turned to Jane, "Captain, you have the authority to initiate order 37. We can use it to get these Jedi." one of the troopers suggested.

Jane clenched his fist so tight that if he didn't have his gloves on, it would have caused him to bleed, "If you ever suggest something like that again trooper, I will personally execute you!" Jane barked.

One of the troopers looked around, "Where's Cyrus?" he asked. Jaing got on the comm.

"Trooper, report." Jaig ordered, static answering him, "his emergency beacon is on."

"Let's go check on him." Jane ordered as they ran to the beacon's location. They found him on the ground his eyes closed and unmoving, a lightsaber wound in his chest.

Jaing's hands clenched his blaster tightly. He then turned to the civilians, "What happened here?" he demanded.

"...The lad with the blue blade pulled him onto his sword." a hobbit said fearfully.

Jaing rounded on Jane, "It's thanks to you that one of our men is dead!" he shouted.

Jane just nodded, "You're right. It's my responsibility that Cyrus is dead. I will contact base and have them send speeders and reclaim his body. We're going after them." Jane stated and did as he said he would.

Another civilian, a woman approached the troopers, "s...sirs?" she started nervously. Jane turned to face her.

"Yes ma'am?"

"The boy? He stayed with him till he passed on, and he closed his eyes." she told him. Jane nodded in understanding. Jaing appreciate the sentiment but still wanted to blast the Jedi.

"Alright, anything else you can tell me?" Jane asked.

"The boy said that his name was Janus, Janus Lynn." she added.

"Thank you, you can go about your business." he told her. She nodded and left the area as did the others but the people of Bree all kept their eyes on them.

Meanwhile, the five Jedi and and one Mandalorian ran through the wilds as fast as they could, trying to put a much distance between them and Bree as possible. Jak could tell that they were heading east. Du told them that as they crashed he saw a ruined tower some ways away from the settlement. After some time, they came to a stop in a clearing.

"What is... the Empire doing here?" Kes panted out as she supported herself on a tree.

"I'm not sure." Jak said, he too was breathing heavy.

"We should keep moving." Jasmine stated, "how far is the tower? We'll make camp there and if we need to, hold out." With that they group nodded in agreement and they continued their trek to the ruins.

(Location: the Ford of Bruine)

Xey followed the Sons of Elrond for a while now. They had to take a more indirect route because of some enemies blocking the direct route. She heard the sound of flowing water, "Are we close?" she asked curiously.

"Aye my lady, we are very close." Elrohir answered, "we need to cross the river here and we'll be in the valley."

Xey looked nervous, "River, as in water?" she asked. Being blind, she was nervous when it came to bodies of water.

"The water will barely reach your knees." Elladan assured her.

Xey swallowed nervously, "If you say so." However, she placed a steadying hand on Elladan's shoulder. He didn't protest and led her through the river.

After about half an hour of walking, they came to an open area. Xey could feel water droplets touch her face, and the Force resonated strongly here. She felt at peace, the same feeling she had at the temple before the war started.

"My lady, welcome to Imladris, the last homely house east of the sea." Elrohir said.

"Isn't that a bit redundant?" Xey asked, "also I can't see it." she added.

"A thousand pardons, perhaps father can help restore your sight." Elrohir apologise. Xey's breath caught.

"Can he?" she asked hopefully.

"Our father is a great healer. Of course he can help you." Elladan answered.

Xey nodded vigorously, "I would like that."

"Alright then, follow us, but be careful. The pass here is a bit narrow." Elrohir warned. She nodded and placed her hand on Elladan again and carefully followed them into the realm of the Noldor.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed**


	5. Battles of the Past

**AN: I'm back with a new chapter I hope you all enjoy**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my Oc's, also Jak, Ulra, and Jasmine belong to Mandalore the Freedom... if you want I will take any OCs you send to me.**

 **Chapter 4 (battles of the past)**

Xey kept hold of Elladan as they came to an archway, through the force Xey could see a powerful and calming presence that they were approaching, they came to a stop just short of the presence, "Father." both the brothers bowed in respect.

Xey in her state of nervousness waved in the general direction of the master of Rivendell, "Hello." she said shyly.

"My lady, welcome to my home, I am Elrond Half Elven." Elrond introduced himself with a bow, then he said something in another language " **Man esselya Na?"**.

"Father she doesn't speak Quenya." Elrohir stated.

"My name is Xey Pen, and I am called an Echani." she answered Elronds question, much to their surprise, "I deveined your meaning through the Force." she explained.

"Perhaps we could discuss more of this over dinner, my daughter here can take you to get washed up." Elrond suggested.

"Uh, begging your pardon lord Elrond but before any of that can you…" she trailed off somewhat embarrassed.

Elrond waited patiently for her to finish, "Can you heal my eyes please?" she requested, her voice thick with emotion, Elrond smiled and approached the girl and placed his hands over her eyes and began to speak in another language, this lasted for a minute before the lord of Rivendell came out of the trance and gently removed the blindfold from the girl's face, her eyes were clenched shut.

"You may open your eyes now Xey." Elrond told her gently, Xey opened her eyes only to shut them again.

"It's so bright." she said, before she realised what she said, "I can see." she said almost in disbelief as she opened her eyes she squinted a bit to get used to the brightness before she opend them all the way revealing two beautiful silver pools that were overflowing with water, "I can see." she said again, "I CAN SEE!" she shouted joyously and lept at Elrond and hugged him "Thank you so much!" she sobbed into his cloak.

Elrond just smiled lightly and returned the embrace slightly, "You're welcome young one.", with that Xey pulled away from the embrace.

"Thank you so much." she said again, "I haven't been able to see for over a year."

"You're welcome, I'm glad I could help." Elrond told her with a smile.

"Are any of my friends here?" Xey asked, Elrond sighed and shook his head.

"No, not yet, I sent my most powerful warrior and his apprentice to get the group of six by now he would see that they are making his way to him even if that isn't their intent." Elrond answered

Xey was about to ask another question before her stomach growled, she grimaced in embracement, "Sorry."

"It's quite alright we'll get you fed and talk more over dinner please." with that Elrond turned and led the way to the main house and handed Xey over to his daughter Arwen and she took Xey to the bathhouse to wash up.

 **(Location Whether Top the Great Watchtower of Amon Sul a few days later)**

The group of six finally made it to the ruined tower, "Can… we stop now?" Janus wheezed out when they finally stopped.

"Yeah" Jak panted from all that running.

"Let's set up camp." Ulra suggested as she did so.

"No fire it would make it easier for them to see us." Jasmine stated as she sat down to catch her breath.

"Alright." Du stated as he and Kes scouted out the area, they walked through the ruins of the tower and kes shivered a little, "I know this place is covered with death, I wonder what happened here?" Du commented.

"Maybe we'll find out someday." Kes said as they came to the top of the ruins, "a powerful object was held here." she added.

"It must have been to leave an imprint like this." Du agreed as he touched one of the ruined wall and looked out over the land, a silence fell between the two jedi as they looked around.

"It looks clear, I'll go tell the others." Kes told him after they were done looking around and went down the stairs.

Du nodded absently, studying a rusted helmet he found, it was designed to fit a human's head, it had wings on it sprouting from either side of it, "I wonder who these people were?" Du said outloud.

"They were called the Dunedain." an almost musical voice answered, Du turned in alarm his bronze blade activated and held in front of him, he saw two individuals at first glance they looked to be human females but the pointed ears and the almost luminous aura told Du otherwise.

One of them Du finally deduced was a male, He was tall and straight, his hair was shining gold, his face fair and young, fearless and full of joy, his eyes bright and clean, but amidst all of that Du could see that he was a warrior full of wisdom and experience one of his hands were held up in a sign of peace, "Please mellonin stay your blade we haven't come to hurt you." he said.

"Oh really?" Jak asked as he came up from the storage area below his blaster in hand and pointing at the man, "then why are you here?"

"We were trying to find you when you came out of those falling stars." the female said, she had also possessed a fair face, and silky light brown hair, her voice was soft a musical as well, she was shorter than the man but looked like she could handle herself in a fight.

Du deactivated his saber and placed it on his hip, this caused Jak to look at the zabrak questioningly, "They're not here to harm us." Du answered the unasked question.

"He's right they aren't here to harm us." Ulra said as she came up from the same place as Jak did, after her everyone else followed.

The golden haired man bowed in greeting, "My name is Glorfindel, and this is my apprentice Iminye, we are Elves of Rivendell and we have come to escort you to the hidden valley." the elf now identified as Glorfindel told them.

"I have a question, Why should we go with you?" Jak asked him.

"You are obviously strangers to this world, it would be wise to follow us and we can tell you all about Arda." Iminye answered, Janus could tell that she was excited for some reason.

"Do we have to go now can we sleep here tonight we ran for force knows how long." Janus pleaded, the elves chuckled.

"I see no harm in that." Glorfindel answered, "we can take watch." Jak however held up a hand.

"If it's all the same to you I will watch with you the first shift." Jak said.

Glorfindel nodded, "Do as you please." then he turned to Iminye who was staring at Du and Jasmine.

The female elf realised she was staring when the cathar and the zabrak turned to look at her, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare." Du held up a hand to assure her.

"It's alright, my name is Du and my race is called zabrak I hail from Iridonia." he told her.

Jasmine waved slightly, "My name is Jasmine, my people are called cathar and they come from a world of the same name."

"What all can you tell me about them!?" Iminye asked no longer able to contain her questions, Glorfindel chuckled at his students almost child like behavior.

"Iminye let them rest you can ask them more questions later." he assured her.

Iminye was a little embarrassed by her outburst, "sorry." she apologised.

"It's alright I'm pretty curious myself about this place." Du waved the apology off.

"What would you like to know?" Glorfindel asked.

"Well what is this tower, what's its history?" Janus asked as he looked around the ruins.

Glorfindel sighed sadly, "This was the great watchtower of Amon Sul, it was built to serve as a protective barrier for the capital of Arnor and later Arthedain, Fornost, against invaders from the east."

"I take it that's what happened 'invaders from the east.' came and attacked this fortress?" Jak asked.

Glorfindel nodded, "I will start at the beginning." he sat down and after taking a moment he started "Long ago twenty rings were forged for the rulers of each of the races in middle earth, 'Three for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In Mordor where the shadows lie.'" he recited.

"Why do I get the feeling that there is something more to these rings than just simple jewelery?" Jak asked with some hint of dread.

"The rings were rings of power all gave their wearers certain powers." Iminye answered.

"Thought so." Jak sighed, "but why give one to a dark lord?"

"Because he was the one who tricked the Elves of Eregion into making nineteen of them, while he forged the last one in secret." Glorfindel answered

"Oh that makes sense." Janus chimed in.

"You didn't finish the poem did you?" Ulra asked.

Glorfindel nodded, "Not yet but I shall now.

One Ring to rule them all,

One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!

In Mordor where the shadows lie."

"It was a trap." Kes said in realization.

"Yes, the Dark Lord, Sauron wanted to bring everything under his dominion, the elves saw through his deception and removed their rings and hid the three greatest from him and he gave the rest to Dwarves and Men."

"So he could corrupt them." Ulra said in realization, "did it work."

"Not on the Dwarves they're too stubborn to give into evil though the rings did increase their desire for gold and precious gems," Glorfindel answered.

"And the men?" Jak asked with a raised eyebrow.

Glorfindel sighed, "he succeeded, for men are easily corrupted and desire power above all else they cared not what the rings were only that it gave them power." While Jak did feel that Glorfindel's view on humans was a bit unfair he did understand that he wasn't entirely wrong.

"That's all fine and dandy but what does this have to do with," Du began gesturing around them, "this?".

"Have patience I'm getting to that," Glorfindel assured him, "the free peoples resisted, it was called the 'War of the Last Alliance' led by Elendil the first king of all Dunedain, And," Glorfindel nearly choked when he said the next name, "the Elven King Gil-Galad, they formed the largest force ever recorded in our history and marched to Mordor itself and laid siege to the Dark lords fortress Barad-dur, sometime during during the long siege the Dark lord finally came out to face the king of man and elf and together they overthrew him but were killed in the process, Elendil's surviving son Isildur picked up the broken blade of his father and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, thus Sauron's body was vanquished."

The group sat their for a moment before Janus caught that last thing, "his Body was vanquished what do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Sauron bound his soul to the ring meaning that so long as the Ring exists Sauron will as well." Iminye answered, Kes threw her hands up in exasperation.

"It's never simple with dark lords is it? they always have some way of cheating death." she said in annoyance, "I call bull." she added much to her companions amusement.

"So what did this Isildur do with the Ring?" Jak asked curiously, Iminye's jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed in anger.

"The fool took the evil thing for his own thus allowing Sauron to endure." she growled, only for Glorfindel to place a calming hand on her shoulder, she looked away and tears filled her eyes.

"Isildur's company was ambushed by orcs somewhere on the great river, Anduin, and he was slain along with his three eldest sons and two hundred knights and the Ring lost." Glorfindel finished.

"Well if it's lost at the bottom of the river than no one is ever finding that thing ever again." Jasmine said confidently.

"Perhaps you're right." Glorfindel agreed, "now I guess you would like to hear the fall of the north kingdom?" he asked, the group nodded, "Very well. Middle Earth enjoyed a thousand years of peace after the Ring was lost, and the death of Isildur, but Sauron was not dead only cast to the shadows in time evil once more began to move, Arnor the north kingdom of men ruled by the heirs of Isildur, this land of passion and promise was waylaid by man's inability to set aside petty differences," he started that last bit caused some feelings of annoyance to stir in Jak but he stayed silent, "and so it was that civil strife weakened the Dunedain and broke the land into three realms, Rhudaur the smallest and weakest of the Dunedain kingships, Cardolan guardian of the ancient barrow downs where the forefathers of the Dunedain lay entombed, and Arthedain the most powerful of the northern realms still ruled by Isildur's heirs from its capital at Fornhost, it was during the reign of the eighth king of Arthedain that evil began to multiply in Angmar, a twisted frozen land that lay north beyond the Ettenmoors and home of the Black Numenoreans, among them a sorcerer of great power arose known only as the Witch King, he had taken up his iron crown for a single purpose, to destroy the Dunedain and their Kingdom of Arnor."

"Did he succeed?" Jak asked, Glorfindel sighed.

"He succeeded in destroying the north kingdom but the people still live now as nomads and rangers as their numbers were too few to rebuild their kingdom."

"Did you allow them to do this?" Jasmine asked with a glare.

"What kind of question is that?" Iminye asked insulted, "We did what we could to help Arnor combat Angmar, we even laid siege to their fortress at Carn-Dum so many elves lost their lives in the war with that foul Kingdom."

Jasmine sighed, "I'm sorry it's just you don't seem to have a very high opinion on humans, that I assumed the worst."

"The worst would have been for us to help Angmar slaughter the Dunedain." Iminye growled Glorfindel placed a hand on her shoulder again.

"Forgive me I did not mean to paint men in a bad light I'm just telling you our history and some of our current problems were caused by the actions of some men." Glorfindel apologised, "the Dunedain are descendants of humans that remained loyal to the Valar and friends with our people of course we helped them." Glorfindel explained.

"I see." Janus said with a nod, "who are the Valar?"

"They are the Powers of Arda and they live on the western continent of Aman." Iminye answered, With that Ulra turned her gaze westward and stretched out her sense in less than a minute her breath came quick and she began to feel faint, and she nearly fell over but Jak caught her.

"Wow they are incredibly powerful." she gasped, she almost over loaded her senses by doing that.

"Maybe they could help us?" Du suggested.

"That isn't possible." Glorfindel informed them, "No mortal is allowed to enter Aman unless personally invited by an elf or the Valar."

"And why is that?!" Jak asked feeling a little upset by that.

"Because an army of men tried to storm Aman many years ago and the Valar asked Eru to close off the continent after the army was dealt with." Iminye answered.

"Oh."

"That's too bad we could have used their help in the war with the sith." Janus lamented.

"They prefer not to interfere with anyone and wish to be left alone." Glorfindel told them, "they have helped us in a definitive way before but that was with the first dark lord, Morgoth." Glorfindel explained, "But that's a story for another day."

"Hmm," Kes hummed in thought, "Alright, can you continue with the fall of Arnor please?" she asked politely.

The elder elf nodded, "Before Arnor could be invaded the Witch King needed a symbol to unite Angmar's proud and willful denizens, legends say that there in ages past loomed a great fortress of the ancient darkness its ruins dark and silent in the mountains rebuilding that bastion helped in securing the iron crown's dominion over the black numinoriens and the northern troll tribes."

"Trolls?" Janus asked, "what kind of problem are they?"

"I don't think he means that kind of troll Janus." Du answered.

"What?" Iminye asked.

"A troll where I come from is someone who basically antagonises people for attention and in general has nothing better to do with their lives and try to make people around them miserable." Janus answered.

"Ah, well the trolls I'm talking about are actually dangerous." Glorfindel answered, "they are foul beast created by Morgoth, they are tall and strong creatures most are stupid and slow, but they eat meat including the flesh of men, elf, dwarf and even orc if possible."

"Hmn." Jak hummed in thought, "how tall are they?"

"8 to 10 feet." Iminye answered.

Jak nodded and made a mental note of that, "continue, I believe that you were at the Witch King unifying the inhabitants of Angmar."

"After the Witch King and his lieutenant, alongside a troll of the north they liberated fought and defeated the black numenoreans they pledged their loyalty to him as the only other option was death, now with all of Angmar united united under the iron crown legions of orcs fight under the comand of the thrall masters of Angmar, the great fortress at Carn-dum continues to rise it made an ideal sanctum for the Witch King to work his fell sorcery, the hammer was forged at last ready to smite the Heirs of Elendil and lay their kingdoms low." the balrog slayer stated, "In the face of this gathering storm king Argeleb of Arthedain reclaims the throne of all Arnor, Cardolin does not oppose him," he added, the audience all listened intently, "but," Janus had a bad feeling about this, "one faction of the hillmen of Rhudaur begin to rebel, they are led by Hwaldar a hill chief in secret league with Angmar, moving to crush this resistance Argaleb has Hwaldar seized and moves into Rhudaur, but Angmar its power ready advances into the weakest of the Dunedain realms, thus one man's lust for power has given the witch king an opportunity and he will seize it with both hands."

"Let me guess the Witch King freed the hill chief and killed Argeleb." Janus stated more than asked.

"That's correct, Argeleb died on the fields of Rhudaur his dream of a united north kingdom gone." Glorfindel confirmed.

"How tragic." Ulra said with a shake of her head the others couldn't help but agree.

"So I take it that with the death of their king that Arnor lost after that correct?" Jak asked.

"You would be wrong actually it took Angmar five hundred years to destroy Arnor." Iminye answered.

"Wow."

"Men no matter the cost even if they are doomed will continue to fight that is a trait worth admiration." Glorfindel stated.

"So the Witch King failed with in his life time huh? Or was he an 'immortal'?" Du asked curiously.

"I thought him to be a powerful Black Numenorean, but I was wrong." Glorfindel ansewered.

"You mentioned that before what is a Black Numenorean?" Jak asked.

"They are descendants of Numenor the greatest Kingdom of men and are the Dunedain's distant brothers, and sisters, they are men who turned their backs on the Valar, Eru, and betrayed us, all because they feared death and wanted immortality like the elves." Iminye answered.

"When you say 'Immortal' what do you mean?" Kes asked.

"Elves don't die of old age, we stop aging after we finished maturing, that being said an elf can die just as easily as anyone else." Glorfindel explained then he smiled, "I should know." he said somewhat jokingly.

"Eh?" Janus asked.

"I died once before thousands of years ago." Glorfindel answered with a shrug.

"Can you explain?" Jak asked confused, Jasmine touched the elf to make sure that he was their and not an illusion, much to his and Iminye's amusement.

"Of course, it happened after the fall of my home city Gondolin, I was escourting a group of refugees alongside several others when we saw a Balrog coming at us, a Demon in service of Morgoth one of his most dangerous servants, I didn't think I charged the foul thing and fought it to give the rest of the refugees a chance to escape, I hewed its iron helm than I stabbed it through its stomach and he fell from the pass into the abyss but on its way it grabbed my hair and I went with it, my Body was later recovered by Thorondor lord of the eagles to recover my broken body, my spirit then departed to the Halls of Mandos as is the fate of elves who die, the Valar saw my act of Valor and Bravery that saved many of my kin and friends and they allowed me to return to middle earth re-embodied." Glorfindel recounted, he saw that his audience was shocked by that and unsure of whether to believe him or not.

"That sounds crazy." Janus stated, "but I can tell that you aren't lying."

"Why would I lie?" Glorfindel asked, "I have nothing to gain, and I care not what ill you think of me."

"Fair enough." Jak answered, "still doesn't change that I am skeptical of your story as good as it is."

"I have nothing to prove to you, you either believe my tale or you don't." Glorfindel retorted simply with a smile on his face.

"It doesn't matter now," Ulra stated, "the tale sounds a little outlandish, but I sense no lie coming from you and there are things in this universe we have yet to understand so for all I know what you said could very much be a possibility."

"So beings that are immortal you believe, but beings that come back from the dead you doubt?" Glorfindel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Jak answered curtly.

"Not really." Du and Kes answered at the same time.

"Oh really and why is that?"

"Mostly because their has been some very strange things that have been recorded such as encounters with the ghost of the dead among other things." Jasmine answered.

"I guess there are things that I don't understand, so maybe you are telling the truth." Jak said after a moment, "still, risking your life to save your people I respect you."

"Thank you." Glorfindel nodded, "would you like to hear more of the fall of Arnor?"

The group nodded, "Alright then, now I will talk about the fall of this fortress, the new king Arveleg son of Argeleb, with the help of Cardolan and the Elves, had checked Angmar's advance, for many years they have held the frontier along the whether hills," he than gestured all around them to tell them that they were at said hills, "using the power of the Palantir at Amon-sul Arveleg had foiled every attack and strategy, the Witch King had to undertake a daring and dangerous strategy, a direct assault on the fortress of Amon-Sul, he used diversionary attacks to draw off the forces of Cardolan and the elves, while the main army struck the fortress," he than looked around them at the ruins almost like he was remembering something, "although it wasn't the largest bastion in middle earth, Amon-sul was host to a mighty power the Master Palantir of the North."

"What is a Palantir and is that what we're sensing here?" Ulra asked curiously.

"You keep saying that what do you mean you sence something?" Iminye asked.

"We have a deep connection to the life energy of the universe and there objects in the universe that contain great power and they leave an impression in a place where they have been kept for long periods of time." Jasmine explained.

"And you all possess this connection?" Glorfindel asked curiously.

"They do I don't." Jak answered.

"Curious, forgive me in answer to your question the Palantiri or the seeing stones are objects of great power that allow for communication in middle earth and beyond, but they can also be great for gathering information on an enemy's movements, the one that was housed here was here ever since the fortresses founding over a thousand years before it's fall so I imagine it did leave the 'impression' that you sense." Glorfindel answered.

"Who created these stones?" Janus asked.

"The Noldor did, many years ago possibly by Feanor during his time in Aman but of that I'm not sure." Iminye answered, "Feanor was one of the High Kings of the Noldor many ages ago." she answered the unasked question.

"How many are there?" Du asked almost urgently.

"Seven, unfortunately three of them are missing."

"Would you mind if we use one of them to find our friends?" Kes asked meekly.

"That depends are any of you heirs to kingship or queenship?" Glorfindel asked.

"Why would that matter?" Jak asked confused.

"The Palantiri only allow kings or heirs to use them and those tasked with guarding them." Glorfindel explained.

"Would I be able to use a Palantir?" Janus asked after a moment of silence, the group all turned to him confused,

"Oh, so you are an heir to a kingdom?" Glorfindel asked.

Janus had tears in his eyes at the memory of his home before he nodded, "But I won't be able to claim it, my home has been taken by two separate powers, I was the prince of the Carthean System, a lot of good that title does for me now."

"I am sorry to hear that." the elves said sincerely.

"How come you never said anything?" Jak asked.

"I didn't see the need to, before you ask yes the resistance knew about me being a member of the royal lineage I asked them to keep it quiet." Janus answered honestly, "plus I didn't want you to see me as a spoiled brat who got everything handed to him, as you can see that's the furthest from the truth."

"We wouldn't have seen you like that Jan." Du stated.

"You say that now, but we will never know now so it doesn't matter, this doesn't change anything between us does it?" Janus asked them.

"No it doesn't you're still our friend and nothing is going to change that." Du answered, Kes smiled and nodded as well as did Jasmine and Ulra, the damn helmet made it impossible to tell Jak's expression but Janus could sense that he was indifferent about his heritage.

With that all done, Janus turned back to the elves, "So will I be able to use the Palantir?"

"I don't know." Glorfindel answered honestly, "the only people I know of that used them were the Dunedain kings and the Elven kings, as well as their guards."

"Well I'll be sure to find out if we come across one." Janus stated.

"Perhaps you will." Iminye answered with a smile.

"So what happened with the siege of Amon-sul how was the battle won?" Jak asked wanting the hear the story continue.

"The Defenders fought valiantly Arveleg stayed to defend the tower and hold off the forces of the Witch King, while the Dunedain got the Palantir away and back to Fornost, he died in the fighting one hundred years of age after fifty years of successfully holding the coming storm back." Glorfindel answered

"Wow good on him." Du said impressed

"You sound impressed why is that?" Iminye asked

"Well it's just that humans at the age of 100 are typically weak and frail." Jak answered.

"Not the Dunedain." Glorfindel answered, "they live much longer than most men, for example Elendil was 322 years old and he was still what some would consider 'middle aged'."

"So Arveleg..."

"Was still in his prime, yes." Iminye answered.

"This world keeps getting more interesting." Kes stated excited

"Indeed, but why do the Dunedain have such long life spans?" Jak asked curiously.

"Because they were blessed with such after they fought alongside us in the War of Wrath with Morgoth, and some of the Dunedain have elvish blood flowing through their veins." Glorfindel answered.

"Ah." Jak nodded in understanding

"Wouldn't the child of an elf and man be 'immortal'?" Janus asked curiously.

"Actually that's up to the child." Iminye answered, "they can choose whether to have the life of an elf or the life of a man."

"The choice is given to half elves the first king of Numinor was a half elf who chose to live as a man and took the gift of men." Glorfindel added.

"And what is the 'gift of men'?" Jak asked.

"Mortality of course." Glorfindel answered, "Immortality is not all that great, there are elves who envy mortals."

"I can believe that." Jak said.

"Especially if one falls in love with a mortal." Iminye muttered, the group could tell that by saying that she had loved a human.

"Who was he?" Ulra asked the elf.

"He was a Knight of Arnor, and he died in the Siege of Fornost." Iminye said her voice thick and tears welled up in her eyes. Glorfindel brought her in an embrace.

"When did Arnor fall?" Janus asked.

"Almost a thousand years ago." The balrog slayer answered, "but like I told you it took Angmar almost five hundred years to do that thanks in no small part to the elves of Lindon, Rivendell and even Lorien, after Cardolin was ravaged by the Great Plague and the siege at Rivendell broken, we besieged the Witch King at his capital in Carn-Dum, but the Witch King's cunning matches his cruelty thanks to the well timed arrival of his lieutenants prevented a complete annihilation of his army, the iron crown suffered a heavy blow but Angmar was not defeated it would take time for it to recover its strength, the dunedain believed that because of us they might be able to rise again and finish what the elves started, but they reckoned without knowledge of the depth of the Witch King's hatred he sends his sorcerers among the Barrows of the great Arnor Kings while the desecration of this hallowed soil may break the hearts of men, the Witch King had an even darker purpose." he stated forebodingly.

"Why do I have sick feeling in my stomach?" Jak asked.

"You're not alone in that." Janus stated, the others all nodded.

"What did he do?" Kes asked nervously.

"He corrupted the spirits of the dead kings and put the Barrow Wights into the tombs, they are shape changing demons that have the ability to reanimate the dead, the Witch King did this to prevent the surviving people of Cardolan from resettling their and perhaps to keep the Dunedain in their kingdom." Glorfindel explained.

"This is why Mandalorians cremate their dead." Jak said with a shake of his head

"What, no it isn't." Kes retorted.

"You're right it isn't but still atleast our dead won't be reanimated by anything and turned on us." Jak stated.

"Unless they're attacked and somehow killed by Rakghouls or something else." Du pointed out.

"I get it!"

"Hey I'm just saying, no need to get angry."

Glorfindel decided to cut in before an argument could ignite, "Enough!" he commanded, the bickering friends stopped and turned their attention to him, "Thank you, now would you like the hear the rest?" he asked, the group nodded, "Many years have passed since the great plague had devastated to north, in great secrecy the Hosts of Angmar have been reforged and the final stroke is ready to fall on the last bastion of Arnor's power, Fornost, with its beautiful spires and unyielding walls it alone stands between the Witch King and total victory, but the Dunedain did not fall easily, they had gathered all of their host and all of their allies for this battle, the last and decisive battle for the north began."

"We know how it ends, they were defeated." Kes stated sadly.

"Angmar's hammer fell and down came Fornost in ash and fire, Arnor never wakes from its age long nightmare, thousands lay dead in the streets, the Witch King's malice was free to spread throughout these northern lands, Evil had come to Arnor and evil prevailed." Iminye finished with tears falling down her cheeks.

The group was silent for a moment unsure of what to say, "... Were there any survivors of the battle?" Jak asked.

"A few men and King Arvedui escaped with the Palanti they hoped to escape by going to the Ice-bay of Forochel, Ciridan sent a ship to rescue him, but the ship went down and he went with it taking the two Palanti with him to the bottom of the sea, thus how two of them are missing." Glorfindel answered.

"What about Angmar, something tells me that your people did not let that kingdom get away with that unchecked?" Janus asked curiously.

Glorfindel adopted a grim expression, "The Kingdom of the South, Gondor lead by their future king came up north to answer the call for aid… but they came too late."

"Why didn't they come sooner?" Jak growled.

"They would have if they could have, they went through some brutal civil wars, the men of Harad invaded them, the great plague also affected them, they just couldn't help Arnor." Iminye answered sadly, than her eyes narrowed, "So they decided to avenge it."

"Elves and men came together to drive evil from the northern lands forever, Earner of gondor would lead the men," Glorfindel began.

"Who led the Elves? Kes asked.

"... I did." Glorfindel answered, "the elves called for me elf lord of Rivendell and Gondolin to lead them on the field of battle, and so it was at the will of my people that I take up a blade once more, I rode with lord Elrond at my side under Earner's banner, elves and men together drove evil from the north forever, we did not merely push the Witch King back to his lair of Carn Dum as we foolishly done before, we intended for total destruction of Angmar and _this_ time it was so."

"That's good to hear." Jak said sounding pleased to hear that.

"Indeed." Ulra said in agreement.

"And the Witch King? What happened to him?" Du asked.

"In his last stand the Witch King sat on his dark horse before us, as we rode forward he realised that all hope was lost, his terrifying scream of rage sent the chill of winter down our spine, as he turned and fled into the shadows, Earnur stuck out to chase him down, but I then realised his power, we thought him but a powerful black numenorean, but he is Nazgul first of the nine most fell servant of the dark lord Sauron, I pulled up my hand and called out to Earnur 'do not pursue him, he will not return to these lands, far off yet is his doom and not by the hand of man shall he fall.'" Glorfindel recounted

"You foresaw the Witch King's ultimate demise?" Janus asked just to make sure, the elder elf nodded, "I see."

"So he was one of the recipients of the nine rings of power?" Jak asked having connected the dots.

"Yes he was a king of men, now he is a wraith and slave to the will of the dark lord." Iminye confirmed

"That's just pitiful." Janus said with a shake of his head, the others couldn't help but agree.

Glorfindel looked up at the night sky to gage the time, "Late is the hour, I recommend you get some sleep we have a six day journey to make, you'll need your strength." Glorfindel suggested gently

The group felt their fatigue hit them like a starship in hyperspace crashing into a planet, and they didn't bother argueing with the elf, "Alright I'll take first watch." Jak volunteered.

"We elves don't require sleep we can take watch." Iminye assured him.

"No offence but It's more to make sure you don't try anything, more than anything else." Jak said bluntly, the elves just shrugged and waved it off after all they'd do the same.

With that the group went to sleep with Jak staying watch, though Janus did volunteer to take the next shift when Jak was done, than Kes after him.

 **(Location the wilds of Eriador, Thorin's Company camp site.)**

Bilbo was a little angry at Viridian, "You mean to tell me that four of your friends are not like any race on this world, and you kept quiet about that!?" Bilbo asked, Viridian had talked more about his friends at the dwarves request including the fact that that four of them are not human or anything that they'd recognise.

"It must have slipped my mind." Viridian said with a grin, "Actually Gandalf told me not to tell you till later."

Bilbo huffed in annoyance, "It doesn't matter, I signed a contract, I'll see it through to the end." the hobbit sighed, Viridian placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I feel that we're going to get along great, Master Baggins." Viridian said with a smile.

"I hope so."

"So Viridian," Thorin called, the young Jedi turned to the leader of the company giving him his full attention, "tell us more about these Mandalorians that this Jak is a part of, you said that they were a warrior culture correct?" Viridian nodded and took a seat by the campfire to make himself warm and the Dwarves all gave him their attention.

"The Mandalorians are indeed a warrior culture, in many ways they are pseudo nomadic at least that's the way I see it." Viridian began.

"What do you mean by that laddie?" Bofur asked curiously.

"The Mandalorians have a home world called Mandalore obviously but they also move around the galaxy in clans when they are not at war." Viridian explained, "they were originally founded by a species called the Taung they actually once inhabited the world of Coruscant, the world where I come from, they battled the thirteen nations of Zhell, Jak told me that they believed that the Zhell were the human ancestors of Coruscant, any way to make a long story short they were eventually driven off of Coruscant and led by a warlord called 'Mandalore the first' they found and conquered a world in the outer rim and named it after their leader." Viridian explained.

"Why were these Taung driven off of their original home?" Bilbo asked.

"The way I see it the Zhell's were getting fed up with the Taung constantly attacking them and well drove them off the planet, that and the fact that the human's were driven to the point of near extinction mostly because of a volcano erupting but I think the Taung didn't help much either." Viridian answered Bilbo nodded it made sense, "at least that's the way I interpret it, Jak may have a different interpretation."

"Don't we all?" Balin asked rhetorically.

"What is the relationship between the Jedi and the Mandalorians?" Dwalin asked curiously

Viridian sighed and stood up he turned and looked out over the cliff they had set up camp on, "It's not the best, the Mandalorians often sided with our enemies the sith one of the most notable instances was the war with the Sith Lord Exar Kun, you see the Mandalorians love to find challenges, enemies to test themselves against, they believe that it's how they grow and I suppose in a way they aren't wrong." Viridian stated, "that being said we have made a few alliances with them especially in the New Sith Wars, the Dark Wars, and most recently the Clone Wars."

"Wouldn't that make them… warmongers?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"... I suppose it does in a way, but it's a bit more complicated than that." Viridian answered, "they love to challenge themselves yes, but they don't go around killing people for the fun of it at least no True Mandalorian does." he explained, "let's just say that they have their bad apples as well as their good ones."

Gandalf nodded an appropriate analogy, "What do you think of them?" the eldest member of the company asked.

Viridian thought for a moment, "that all depends really on which faction you're asking about the Death Watch for the most part I despise, the new Mandalorians are idealist, and the Mandalorian protectors… that last one's a bit complicated."

"And what exactly are those factions?" Celebion asked.

"The Death Watch for the most part are a group of thugs who want to bring back the Mandalorian empire and follow the example of the Mandalorian crusaders of galactic conquest, the republic and the Jedi fought against the Crusaders about fifty years after the war with Exar Kun in a war called the Mandalorian Wars but I'm not going to get into that."

"Oh why not?" Bofur asked disappointed.

"Because every time I do Jak accuses me of being a bigot when I try and explain my views on the crusaders." Viridian deadpanned, "I want to get something straight I hate people who commit Genocide I don't hate everybody of the entire culture those people happen to be a part of."

"The crusaders committed genocide?" Celebion asked.

Viridian sighed, "Some did some questionable things, and billions of people suffered for it, 90% of the cathar species was nearly wiped out with the remaining 10% either becoming refugees or were sold into slavery." the company was sickened to hear that.

"How awful." Bilbo said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah all cultures have some skeletons in their closets, including the Jedi and the Republic." Viridian admitted, Celebion knew what he was talking about, "you see when we first encountered the sith under Naga Sadow they attacked us with no provocation after we repelled their invasion we went to the sith empire and the chancellor of the time ordered for the complete eradication of the sith species." he explained, he didn't bother turning to face them believing that they were glaring at him, before he felt a hand on his shoulder he turned to see Gandalf who had a look of understanding.

"You are not to blame for that atrocity young Mallory just as this Jak is not to blame for the atrocities his ancestors committed, the people that are to blame are long dead and are paying the price for their crimes in what lies beyond death." Gandalf told the young Jedi.

Viridian sighed in relief, at least they understood, "Thank you." he than turned to the other members of the company, "Where was I?" he asked.

"You were explaining the different factions of Mandalorians I believe we have a good understanding of the death watch, so what about the other two?" Thorin stated.

"The new Mandalorians like I said are a group of idealist, they are pacifist and they refuse to fight… even if they are being attacked." Viridian started.

"What kind of idiot wouldn't have a trained defence force?" Fili asked

"They were scared." Viridian answered

"What?"

"It all started centuries ago." Viridian started, "after the new sith wars the republic senate drafted a document called the Ruusan Reformation, they named it after the last battle of that thousand year war, but that's not important for this discussion, what the RR did was basically demilitarized the Republic and the Jedi…" Viridian growled before he took a deep breath 'now isn't the time to rant.' he thought to himself, "Well the republic offered the Mandalorians the chance to join the Republic, they refused."

"Something tells me that this republic didn't like that very much." Balin stated, Viridian laughed bitterly.

"That my dear Balin is the understatement of the millennia." Viridian snarled as he glared at the night sky, "Joining the Republic would entail that the Mandalorians would have to give up their warrior ways you can see how that wouldn't be very appealing and they have every right to deny membership, one of the ideas of a republic is that every state that it's apart of has the right to join or leave at their leisure." the young jedi then shook his head, "heh the Galactic Republic didn't really follow that idea very well." Viridian said sarcastically.

"So what did the republic do?" Bilbo asked.

"Some Jedi of the Jedi order and the Republic launched an attack on Mandalorian space, it was a brief conflict and the Mandalorians were decimated their space occupied and their military disbanded… in short they were oppressed." Viridian told them with a sigh.

"Why did the Jedi stay then?" Celebion asked.

"Our relationship with the Republic is an old one it goes back over a thousand generations."

"That would be twenty five thousand years!" Celebion exclaimed, Viridian turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"It's just that men have only been around according to our records about 9,000 years after awakening in the first age." Celebion stated.

"You forget Celebion in the first age each year is a Valar year meaning that each year is the equivalent of 10 solar years." Gandalf reminded him.

"So… how long did the first age last?" Viridian asked.

"3,000 years." Thorin answered

"So that would mean the first age was 30,000 years long plus..?" Viridian trailed off questioningly.

"The second age lasted nearly 3,000 and this is the year 2941 by the reckoning of men." Gandalf answered.

"Okay now that we determined that the republic was founded within the years that men were created…" Viridian started, 'shoot that doesn't account for the Zhells and the Taung, that happened nearly 200,000 years ago.' Viridian thought to himself 'unless either these people aren't humans but near humans or the Valar put them on this world.' but that didn't really matter now, "let's get back to the subject I was talking about, where was I?"

"Why would the Republic do that to these people." Kili asked, Viridian looked off to the side as if in thought.

"They were afraid of the Mandalorians in many ways I can understand that but it doesn't justify the actions of the Republic or the Jedi who did that."

"Well given what you told us, these people almost religiously pursue war it was understandable." Gandalf stated.

"Funny thing is one for a time they did quite literally worship war itself." Viridian stated, "the new Mandalorians were afraid that if they built up a force again, the Republic would repeat the Excision, what they call Dral'Han roughly translated the Annihilation, thus they went too far to the other end of the spectrum and adopted an unhealthy form of Pacifism, sure they had a trained defence force but it wasn't that well trained only meant to handle small time thugs and scum."

"That's unfortunate." Bilbo sighed then again the hobbits were similar only with them it was because they had nothing to worry about the only time they were invaded was by the orcs of Mount Gram and nothing else, Viridian asked Gandalf about that earlier as to why the Shire saw such little conflict and was so peaceful the wizard told him 'the shire has no real strategic value and the rangers of the north protect the borders from anything that may come close.' it turned out that the Hobbits were the residents of the northern kingdom, earlier that day Bilbo and Celebion had an argument about a contingent of Hobbit archers that were at the Siege of Fornost apparently their was no records of this elsewhere other than in the Shire.

"Yeah it is, the last faction the Mandalorian Protectors, they were born out of yet another faction the True Mandalorians which were wiped out at the Battle of Galidraan." Viridian visibly winced when he said that.

"What was the Battle of Galidraan?" Bofur asked curiously.

Viridian pursed his lips, "A giant mistake, that's what it was, the Jedi were called to Galidraan by the governor of that world saying that a group of Mandalorians were killing a small settlement of innocent people."

"Oh dear." Gandalf sighed having worked out the outcome.

"The Jedi team was lead by Jedi Master Dooku they went to the True Mandalorian Camp and ordered them to come quietly." Viridian clenched his teeth and his hands balled into fist, "he could have stood down it didn't need to end the way it did, there would have been an investigation and we would have discovered that it was the death watch who did that there was no need for blood to be spilt that day!" Viridian ranted his voice raising in volume till he punched a boulder with a force enhanced fist, the stone broke apart from the strike much to the Company's surprise, "Sorry just thinking about it brings my blood to a boil." Viridian apologized as he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Why does this event trouble you so… were you there?" Bilbo asked, the young Jedi shook his head.

"No it was years before my time." Viridian sighed, "it annoys me because some Mandalorian mercenaries that I have met love to brag about how Mandalore Fett killed six of my kin with his bare hands, I know how that must sound but tell me would any of you like that if someone did that to your face?" he asked the company, the group shook their heads no.

"No I wouldn't like that very much infact I would be inclined to remove their heads from their shoulders." Thorin answered.

"When that happened I honestly felt like responding with 'well then tell him to keep his head on next time he faces Jedi' but I didn't, the way I see it if you are allies I will treat you like a friend if you want to be friends, if you don't fine, if you're not going to help or hinder me I will leave you alone, and if you're my enemy than I will deal with you accordingly." Viridian explained, "and these Mandalorians are our allies so I grit my teeth and went on, though I did finally get into a fight with them, it was nice to wipe those smug looks off their faces."

"What were you fighting about?" Bilbo asked.

"It was a spar that's it." Viridian answered, "let's stay on topic, the protectors have had two leaders since I knew of them Spar a clone of Jango Fett, and Fenn Shysa," he told them, "Spar, I have absolutely no respect for." he revealed.

"Why?" Oin asked.

"Because the man is an idiot, allow me to explain he is a clone of Jango Fett that means he possess his memories to a limited degree." Viridian started 'which progressively gets worse to the point where the clone would suffer from personality disorder as he wouldn't be able to tell the two sets of memories apart.' he thought to himself, "the thing is the leader of our enemies was Dooku he left the order sometime after the battle of Galidraan… actually he left after his former apprentice and friend Master Qui-gon Jinn was killed, dare I'd say that he came to view the man as a son." Viridian mused, "sorry, the point is that Dooku led the attack that would lead to the True Mandalorians being decimated Jango Fett at the time was the leader of that faction… Oh wait now I get it like template like clone," Viridian shook his head with a chuckle "typical."

"Something amuses you?" Gandalf asked the young man.

"I just remembered Jango also offered his services to Dooku, that makes even less sense, but I'm not them so I couldn't possibly understand their thought process, the other reason I don't like Spar is because he was happy about my people's massacre." Viridian growled, the Dwarves had to admit that was not nice.

"What? did he come up to you and say that?" Bilbo asked surprised.

"No… I found out through other people and he confirmed it when I met him… well I have gotten used to the fact that not everyone is going to be sympathetic towards me… oh who am I kidding the Galaxy practically demanded our total annihilation." Viridian sighed and laughed bitterly.

The group remained silent for a bit, "what about Fenn Shysa?" Celebion asked hoping to steer the subject from a sad one.

Viridian smiled, "Fenn is a good man someone you would want to watch your back, he took up the job as Mandalore because the empire was occupying their home planet, mostly to drain it of the Beskar ore I told you about."

"One of the few minerals that can stop your weapon." Balin stated with a nod.

"Yeah, the protectors and the resistance I was a part of were allies doing their best to fight the Empire and the Knights of Opalka, that's how I came to meet Jak and Ulra, well I actually already knew Ulra because she was a Jedi then she got captured by the death watch and a whole bunch of other stuff happened, they were delivering weapons to the Carthean resistance and well they decided to stay and fight alongside us." Viridian explained.

"This Jak which of these factions was he a part of?" Dwalin asked curiously.

"... he was a member of the Death Watch, but before you judge him understand this, some of the people who joined Death Watch did so because they wanted to protect their way of life and unfortunately the Death Watch was the only ones that were available." Viridian answered, "I believe that finishes my discussion of the Mandalorians any questions?" he asked.

"What's a clone?" Nori asked curiously, Viridian really hoped they wouldn't have asked that.

"You don't make it easy do you." Viridian muttered quietly, "A clone is… a man that is grown without a mother and is virtually identical to the father, I suppose, in every way." he explained awkwardly, the Company all looked at him like he had two heads, "You asked, I'm trying to answer in a way you can understand." Viridian defended.

"Try again." Thorin retorted.

"It's basically a copy of a man or woman that is grown through science very advanced science that you can not possibly comprehend heck even I have trouble understanding it, the cloners on Kamino created a Clone army for the Republic, they were and are some of the finest soldiers that the Galaxy has ever seen they were cloned from Jango Fett and bred for war." Viridian explained again, the company nodded having understood, their thoughts though were all over the place.

"Did they want to?" Thorin asked suddenly.

Viridian turned to the leader of the company his eyebrow raised, "Pardon?" he asked

"These clones you said they were bred for war, did they want to fight?" Thorin repeated

"... It doesn't matter anymore." Viridian muttered as he turned away, "as far as I know, no they didn't… look I'm not the best person to ask about this subject..." Viridian began.

"So they were slaves." Thorin growled.

"Yes they were, that's typically what you get when you have a worker that has no say in the matter." Viridian answered, "Did I like it? Hell no it was an abhorrent practice and the Jedi shouldn't have lead them perhaps if we had not lead the clones we'd still be alive, but we had no choice immediately after we discovered them we were thrown into the bloodiest conflict we had ever seen in our history, it was a damned if we do, damned if we don't situation…" Viridian began to shake, at first Gandalf thought he was crying but then he sensed that it was rage that was shaking Viridian.

"You hate these clones don't you?" Gandalf asked gently.

Viridian stopped shaking and turned to the wizard he had tears in his eyes and a blank look on his face, "And if I did?" he asked his voice betraying none of the feelings he felt.

"What you feel for people is your own choice, I would pity you though life for humans is too short to waste on hating a fellow man." Gandalf answered.

Viridian turned back to the sky lost in thought his mind wandered back to the temple the smell of smoke in the air, the feeling of death that permeated the place that he called home, the dead bodies of people he grew up with some with blaster wounds others with lightsaber wounds, the heat of the fires that burned his home, and one incident he'd never forget so long as he lived, one of the clones throttled a young jedi padawan she was no more than twelve if Viridian remembered correctly.

 _ **(Flashback)**_

" _Stop!" a fourteen year old Viridian shouted as he made his way to the clone that was crushing the young girls throat, he vaulted over a collapsed stone pillar and ran through a fire burning his legs but he didn't care, however by the time he got there the light faded from her eyes and she died the clone unceremoniously dropped her body and kicked it slightly as if to make sure she was dead, Viridian stopped short upon seeing that he felt the clone's immense satisfaction and pleasure at what he just did before he turned to him, Viridian's teeth clenched and his grip on his lightsaber tightened, "You are going to pay for that." Viridian spat._

" _I thought you Jedi didn't believe in revenge." the clone mocked, Viridian sent a telekinetic wave at the clone and proceeded to leap at him roaring in rage he also called the fallen Tholothian's lightsaber to him and brought both sabers down…_

 _ **(end flashback)**_

"Viridian?!" Celebion shouted trying to get the young man's attention Viridian jolted from the flashback.

"I'm sorry what?" Viridian asked looking around, he saw that he was in the company's camp.

"Are you okay?" the ranger asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, sorry." Viridian apologised, "Just some bad memories."

"Would you like to talk about it?" Bilbo asked.

"No I would not like to talk about it thank you mister Baggins." Viridian answered somewhat irritably before he could control his tone, "I'm sorry, none of you deserve my ire."

"It's alright." Bilbo tried to wave it off.

"No it isn't alright." Viridian sighed, "in answer to your question Gandalf about whether I hate clones… the answer is, it depends on the clones." Viridian answered honestly.

Gandalf nodded in understanding, as did the dwarves, Viridian then walked over to his pony and procured another lightsaber and brought it over to the Company, "this lightsaber belonged to a young girl whose murder I witnessed." Viridian began, the looks of horror on the company's faces made Viridian wince, "she was a Jedi about two years younger than me, her name was Vese Allie, I was at the temple when Order 66 was issued, it was the order that declared the Jedi's total eradication, and the clones carried it out, though if what Jak told me was true, for the most part it wasn't by choice, I was running through the temple trying to find a Master to help with the defence of the temple I came to a long hallway and found Vese fighting a clone at the other end of the hall way and I ran as fast as I could I had to fight my way through some clones, and navigate through debris, I was halfway there when he seized her by the neck with one hand the other on her sword arm to prevent her from trying to stop him," Viridian swallowed a lump in his throat as tears cascaded down his face, "and then he crushed her throat, and broke her neck." he sobbed, "and he felt pleasure for doing that." Viridian growled, "you asked if I hated clones." he directed at Gandalf, "that one and others like him, I hate." he spat.

"Poor lass." Bofur said sadly.

"Aye." Balin agreed.

"What happened to him, the clone, did you kill him?" Bilbo asked.

"No." Viridian admitted, "he got away."

"I hope you find him one day, and give that monster what's coming to him." Thorin told the young Jedi.

"I hope I do as well." Viridian muttered as he put the lightsaber on his belt and sat back down, "I don't wish to talk any more tonight." he told the company, they nodded in understanding, but none of them could fall asleep.

 **(Location the wilderness of Eriador a day away from Rivendell)**

Captain Jane Mallory and Jaig were contacting the base to see if they got a match to the name Janus Lynn by now being in the unknown regions it took some time for information to get back to imperial command and then back, "So he's not on the list of known Jedi survivors, that means a survivor trained him." Jane stated over the comm.

" _Yes captain, but we do have a match to the name you gave us, Janus Lynn is the prince and Heir to the Carthean Star Kingdom."_ the advisor informed sending a picture of the prince, if the boy's hair was longer he'd bee the splitting image of the prince himself, " _he went missing when the Opalkins took power, the princess is in custody on Imperial center."_

Jane nodded in understanding "I see, what about the others? did you get any info on the pictures I sent you?" he asked.

" _Yes, they are all on the list of the Jedi traitors that managed to escape order 66."_ the Advisor informed.

"Sir," Jaig cut in, "I would recommend that we call in the Inquisitorius, five Jedi even if they are all padawans are going to be a difficult adversary for us to face." Jaig ignored the glare that Jane sent his way.

" _I will ask the commander if he agrees, one moment."_ the Advisor said putting them on hold

"Jaig you know I value your opinion and I respect you, but that doesn't give you the right to circumvent my authority." Jane said cooly.

"With all due respect sir I get the feeling that you are sabotaging our job to kill these Jedi now why is that?" Jaig asked his voice filled with accusation.

Jane just sighed, "you have family Jaig?" Jane asked

"Uhh… I guess I view the army as my family, with the clones as my closest brothers." Jaig answered confused.

"And if one of your brothers was in trouble what would you do?" Jane asked,

"I'd want to help him."

"Even if it meant committing treason?"

"... what does this have to do with the Jedi?"

"I have a brother in the Jedi order, Jaig." the Captain revealed, the other Imperial soldiers overheard and turned their attention to him.

"... Why didn't you say anything?" Jaig asked after that sank in

"Why do you think?" Jane bit back, the second in command didn't answer, "his name is Viridian, and he's just a teenager, all these Jedi here are teenagers for the most part why are they being punished for what a few masters did?" Jane asked his team.

The team actually didn't answer except for one who snorted, "why? because the Jedi are liers and got what was coming to them." Jane turned to the team member who said that, he was the same one who suggested to use order 37 on the village of bree a few days ago.

"Keen, Viridian is not like Krell." Jane growled, the clone trooper just scoffed.

"Oh please the Jedi don't care about anyone, he's probably exactly like Krell for all you know."

"I fought along side him during the War I know him a hell of alot more than you do."

"The Jedi took a lot from me and kept the war going they deserve to die every last one of them!"

"Enough!" Jane barked, "they have information on the far outsiders it would be a mistake to kill them, not to mention a waste of a good opportunity." he reminded them, "also I understand your view and respect your opinion but if you ever say that about my brother again your time with Krell will be a happy memory compared to what I will do to you." Jane stated calmly, "understood?"

Keen wanted to continue arguing but something prevented him from doing so "yes _sir._ " he spat.

After that was dealt with the Advisor contacted them again, " _Commander Libel agrees with your assessment Jaig, he will send for two inquisitors."_

"Understood sir." Jane sighed, "we'll continue our efforts with the Jedi till they get here."

" _Very good Advisor out."_

"It looks like these Jedi are dead anyway." Keen said with a smirk, Jane just shook his head and left the camp to gather his thoughts.

 **(Location the company's camp)**

The company of Thorin Oakenshield's mood was low, the story that Viridian told them had made sleep as difficult to find as buried treasure without a map so they each did different things from tending to the fire, keeping watch, sharpening their blades or maintaining their bows, or in Bilbo's case tending to the ponies, Viridian heard him feed his pony an apple and shook his head slightly in amusement, that's when they heard something in the night.

"What was that?" Bilbo asked turning to the other members of the company, Thorin sat up completely alert, while Fili and Kili answered the question "Orcs."

"Orcs?!" Bilbo asked alarm, Viridian sat up as well.

"Throat cutters, they'll be dozens of them out there, the low lands are crawling with them, they strike in the wee small hours of the night when everybody's asleep, quick and quiet no screams, just lots of blood." Fili and Kili said, when they finished Bilbo looked back out over the lowlands in terror, Viridian narrowed his eyes at the young dwarves in annoyance and irritation that they talk about something like that so lightly.

"You think that's funny?" Thorin asked letting a small amount of anger into his voice, "you think a night raid by orcs is a joke?" he added.

Kili looked a bit ashamed, "We didn't mean anything by it."

"No, you didn't, You know nothing of the world." Thorin said harshly as he walked to the cliff's edge.

Balin walked up to the young brothers, "Don't mind him laddie, Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs." the eldest dwarf began, "After the dragon took the lonely mountain, Thror led us to the hills in dunland, after sometime Thror left with a companion, Nar, he went to Moria as he was the heir to that once proud kingdom, he entered the open gates despite Nar warning him, and he never returned." Viridian looked over at Thorin, he had a pretty good idea what happened to the king under the mountain, "Nar waited for several days then he heard a great shout followed by a horn and then he saw Thror's body thrown down the steps, Nar turned it over and found engraved on his brow in dwarven ruins a name branded into the hearts of all Dwarves, Azog the defiler, a giant pale gundabad orc," Viridian felt a great amount of animosity flood the camp when that name was uttered "After that Nar returned to Dunland, Thrain upon hearing of his father's death tore his beard and sat alone for seven days in grief, when those seven days ended Thrain stood up and declared that the atrocity would be answered, and so it was that the Dwarven strongholds united and marched on Moria to reclaim it from that foul orc, it took many years but it was done, but at a cost, Azog had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin, and he killed Frerin as well as Nain."

"Who are they?" Viridian asked

"Frerin was my brother," Thorin stated as came back from the cliff, "and Nain was a member of my kin, my cousin."

"I had no idea." Viridian said, "but of course I know nothing of this world."

Thorin felt his lips curl upward slightly, "No you don't."

"And the pale orc? What happened to him." Bilbo asked.

Balin sighed, "we were on the brink of defeat Thrain was wounded losing his eye and his leg made useless, Thorin stood up to the pale orc to defend his father, he stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent, his body broken, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield, Thorin then took up a sword and cut the pale orcs hand off, Azog the Defiler learned that day the line of Durin would not be so easily broken."

"Than he snuck back into the hole from whence he came, the filth died of his wounds long ago." Thorin growled.

Viridian sat their for a moment, "Did you reclaim Moria?" he asked.

Balin looked uncomfortable, "No the other houses didn't want to for fear that Durin's Bane, might still dwell there."

"Durin's Bane?" Bilbo asked.

"No one knows for certain what it is laddie as all who encountered it have never been seen again."

"But you know it exist?" Viridian asked.

"Aye."

Viridian let the matter drop, then he heard the same screeching in the distance, and stood up, "don't worry about it laddie they won't come up here." Balin assured the young Jedi.

"That wasn't what I was thinking at all master Balin, I reckon that I can make this world a bit safer." Viridian declared.

"Oh and how is that?" Thorin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm going to hunt that orc pack down… and kill them." Viridian answered as he went over to his pony and grabbed what he needed.

"Wait you're going to deliberately fight an orc raiding party at night by yourself?" Dwalin asked in disbelief.

"Well any of you are welcome to join me." Viridian invited.

The Dwarves looked among each other and some grinned, while Celebion stood up and strode over to his steed to get himself ready

"There is one problem," Balin started, "how do you expect to see in the darkness?"

Viridian looked at the Dwarves, "I don't need my eyes to see, but for you I have an idea, I learned a few tricks from Jedi master Plo Koon, trust me on this." he smiled.

 **AN: what did you think?**

 **Announcements: Like I said up top I am going to be taking OC's if you want to submit one feel free, they can be of any Race on Arda or Imperial, or Yuuzhan Vong feel free to submit your character in what ever format you want and tell me when you want them to be introduced and I will do the best I can.**

 **Explanations: I am mostly using the lore as it is written by Tolkien for the history of Middle Earth, that being said I did keep Azog being alive like they did in the movies because I felt that was a great idea, in the actual Lore, Dain killed Azog at the battle of Moria by beheading him as he tried to flee that's really the only change that I made, also for the story of the fall of the north Kingdom I used the BFME2 Rise of the Witch King expansions campaign as a base but edited small bits such as the battle at Amon Sul and the Great Plague**

 **Anyways I hope you all enjoyed please leave a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter.**


	6. Orcs, Wargs, and Trolls OH MY!

****Hello everybody, sorry for the long wait, due to a combination of real life, procrastination, and wanting to work on my other project it took a while but hey your here to read my attempt at combining two universes together and judgeing whether or not I succeed.****

 ** **Disclaimer I don't own the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings that belongs to Tolkien, and I don't own Star Wars that belongs to... Mickey Mouse****

 **Chapter 5 Orcs, Wargs, and Trolls oh my!**

 **(location Eriador wilds outside a small human settlement.)**

Orcs, perhaps the most hated creatures in all of Arda, created by the Dark Lord Morgoth as a mockery and dark reflections of the first children of the Iluvatar, a small group of these savage creatures watched a small settlement from a tree line, "We'll be feasting tonight boys." the leader stated happily, the orcs all cheered in agreement fingering their knives and licking their lips in anticipation.

"Oh, will you be?" a voice asked, confusing the orcs, who looked around for the source of the voice.

"We know you're there tark." the leader shouted, "show yourself!" a green blade suddenly sprouted from the leaders chest.

"I am right here." Viridian stated and deactivated the blade, disappearing into the darkness, the orcs all howled and struck at the area they thought he disappeared to, only to hit each other.

"Hey watch it!"

"Stay out of my way!" several of the orcs started shouting, then they began to fight among each other.

Viridian watched this go down almost in total disbelief, "What already?" he asked.

"Sometimes Orcs will fight amongst themselves if they anger eachother and they will fight over petty things as well." Celebion answered with a shrug.

"I was expecting more of a fight than that." the young Jedi admitted.

"As was I." Dwalin muttered in annoyance.

"You want to jump in or just let them kill each other?" Viridian asked the others.

"Eh, let them soften them selves up a wee bit more." Gloin answered.

"Okay." Viridian sighed, "Oh man I just realised, these orcs are very similar to another warrior culture that I know of, I wonder if Jak would see the parallels as well."

"Another one eh?" Celebion asked curiously.

"Yeah, they're called Iridonians not a group I like to mess with."

"ENOUGH!" the hunters heard a voice bellow from the orc raiders direction, they looked in their direction and Viridian stretched out his senses trying to find the person who shouted, "We have a Jeedai here and you are doing exactly what he wants."

"Oh great." Viridian groaned, "it's a Vong."

"Well I guess now is the time to fight." Gloin grinned.

Viridian smirked, and charged into the raiders direction again, as he ran he created a ball of light in his hand and threw it into the air illuminating the entire area and confusing the orcs and their Vong leader, Viridian blitzed the Vong warrior first not wanting to give him a chance to do anything, but at the last minute Viridian saw that he was wearing a helmet so his plan to cut the warriors head off went out the window as his blade crashed into the warriors head and knocked him on his back, "Seriously Cark, Lightsaber resistant materials!" Viridian shouted in frustration, as he took his blade and made to stab the Vong in the eyepiece of its helmet, only for the warrior to turn his head away causing the lightsaber to be deflected into the ground, Viridian however used the force and threw a nearby rock at the charging snake creature knocking it out before he jumped away and landed on top of its heart d effectively crushing it.

The Vong stood up snarling at the loss of his weapon, before pulling out a short sword actually made of metal, "Oh so you don't restrict yourselves to purely organic weapons," Viridian observed, the others had arrived and began fighting the orcs killing them with minimal effort, Celebion told him that the Orcs had very little training with only a few being such formidable warriors, meaning that they relied mostly on their numbers to win their battles as much as their cunning, Viridian though had a feeling that with the Yuuzhan Vong it was a different story altogether.

The Vong thrusted at Viridian, who sidestepped the blow and cut the blade with his saber before hooking the warriors leg and tripping him he then pinned him beneath his foot then stabbed the warrior through the eye.

"You Vong are weaker than I thought, or maybe I'm just stronger than I realised." Viridian mused as he pulled his weapon out of the dead warrior's face, he looked around noticed that the orcs were dealt with, with that he shrugged and deactivated his saber, "Wow they are pathetic." Viridian said outloud

"Aye, the black uruks are the most dangerous breed of orcs but they are in Mordor and never venture this far west." Dwalin said.

"Hmn." Viridian hummed in thought, "Well then let's get back to camp."

"You'll get no argument from me." Celebion agreed, with that the Dwarves and humans made their way back to the camp, Viridian stopped short and looked back into the woods for a moment.

"Something the matter laddie?" Bifur asked noticing the young Jedi had stopped.

Viridian narrowed his eyes slightly and didn't answer for a long moment, "... I thought I sensed something was watching us." he explained, "It's probably nothing, but still let's remain weary."

The Dwarves and Celebion nodded in agreement and kept on guard incase anything struck at them in the night.

Deep in the woods a figure wearing a dark cloak watched as the hunters walked away, his face obscured in the darkness, "So the Son of Arnor has found himself in the company of dwarves and a young cultist… For what purpose I wonder?" the dark figure mused to himself, "Perhaps my lord has some insight." he added, then disappeared into the night

 **(Location Amon Sul the watchtower's ruins)**

Jak leaned on one of the edges of the watchtower windows deep in thought, he looked over at Glorfindel who was looking out north his eyes narrowed and seemed to be following something in the distance, "You have question's warrior?" the golden haired elf asked.

Jak wondered if the elf had probed his mind for a moment but shrugged it off, "You seem to hold humans in a very critical light, why?"

Glorfindel turned to Jak with a raised eyebrow, "You seemed to have taken from my tale that I hold ill against the race of men, I assure you Jak of Mandaloria that is not the case."

Jak raised an eyebrow, "It's Mandalore." he corrected.

"A thousand pardons, but I should tell you some of my best friends were of the race of men, I died for several refugees of Gondolin one of which happened to be a man who was one of my most treasured friends."

"It's just that… you make it sound like the elves are perfect." Jak explained.

Glorfindel started to chuckle at that, "That my friend, is the furthest thing from the truth, not even the Ainer are perfect… for they to can be corrupted and if they can, all of us can." Glorfindel sighed, "one such elf, Feanor, we mentioned him before."

"The great smith and one of the first kings of the Noldor right?" Jak asked.

"The one and the same." the gold haired elf confirmed, "Many years ago he crafted three jewels of great beauty from the light of the two trees in Valinor, called the Silmarils, they were so beautiful and precious that they could never be reproduced not even by Feanor himself, Varda the 'star queen' would bless the jewels so no unclean hands or evil could touch them."

Jak listened intently as the elf told the tale.

"The Silmarils were a symbol of peace and plenty in Valinor, but they would also be a catalyst for war and set the house of Feanor on a path to ruin." Glorfindel sighed, "the first dark lord Morgoth infiltrated the undying lands with the help of Ungoliant, took the jewels and killed Feanor's father Finwe, and together Morgoth and Ungoliant fled to Middle Earth. Feanor was enraged at the theft of the jewels and the murder of his father, and thus took an oath taking up Iluvatar's name along with his sons to get the jewels back at all costs and to kill any who stand in their way. He lead many of the Noldor to the shores of Aman and demanded the Telari ,another elven tribe, to give them ships, the Valar at this point tried to dissuade the elf to go after Morgoth but he did so anyway, the Teleri refused to give them any ships and thus elf spilt the blood of another elf for the first time in our history." Glorfindel explained.

Jak's eyes were wide in surprise, "All for some jewels?" he asked in disbelief.

"These Jewels were the most beautiful things that a created being had ever made, Feanor was a proud elf, and in the end his pride is what brought about his doom and that of his sons."

"So they all died?" Jak asked.

"During the war with Morgoth all but two sons died, Maedhros, and Maglor, after the war the Valar allowed them to take the remaining two jewels after they killed the guards protecting them, so that no more blood would be spilt, the silmarils burnt their hands as they held it and ultimately brought them only misery, Maedhros would kill himself falling into a fiery chasm along with his silmaril, while Maglor would cast his into the sea and live out his days wandering the shores of Middle Earth sad and alone." Glorfindel answered.

Jak just sat there, "Wouldn't Maglor still be alive, since your race can't die by natural causes?"

Glorfindel nodded, "That is very possible, it is the fate he brought upon himself, that being said If he were to plead to the Valar for mercy they probably would give it to him and pardon him like they did the rest of the noldor who participated in the kinslaying."

"... I see." Jak nodded.

A silence drifted between the two warriors, Jak looked around and saw Iminye watching the south, she turned towards him and walked towards the two, "The south is clear." she told Glorifindal.

The Balrog Slayer nodded, "I see some Orc war parties up north as well as the warriors in white armor but they pose no threat to us here."

Jak raised an eyebrow, "Warriors in white armor?" he asked, "Do you mean Stormtroopers?"

"That is what they call themselves yes, you know of them?" Iminye asked

"I most certainly do, they are soldiers of the Galactic Empire, and as I'm sure you guessed our enemy."

The Elves raised an eyebrow at him, "I did have my suspicions as we saw you running from them on our way here," Glorfindel started cautiously, "Can you tell us why they are your enemy?" he asked.

Jak sighed, "They subjected my home, Mandalore," he told them, then he turned to the sleeping members of the group in the center of the tower, "Janus's home was also subjugated, and everyone else…" he sighed, "The Empire wiped out their people." he told them, "you see Ulra, Jasmine, Du, and Kes are members of a group called the Jedi order and about two years ago when the Empire rose, they wiped them out… Saying that they tried to assassinate the chancellor at the time, then… The Empire started to hunt down the survivors of the Jedi, the lucky ones were killed outright."

"What do you mean by that?" Glorfindel asked not liking where this line of thought was going.

Jak wasn't sure when he picked up the stone that he was absently tossing in his hand, but as soon as Glorfindel asked that question, Jak crushed the stone, thanks to his crush gauntlets it made it look easy but it certainly conveyed to the elves that he was angry, "About a year ago, Ulra and I raided an Imperial facility hearing rumors that a Jedi might have been kept there, when we got inside we found him, lying on a table splayed open like a fish." Jak growled, he saw the Elves staring at him in horror, "and to make it worse he had been like that for three days and he only died the day previous, the Imps kept him alive for as long as possible."

"Why would someone do that?" Iminye asked horrified

Jak considered his next words carefully, "The Chancellor was a member of an organization called the Sith and they are the enemy of the Jedi, when they caught word that he was a Sith, four members of the high council tried to arrest him, that didn't go very well to say the least, so to be fair there was some merit to the charges, But it didn't warrant the entire Jedi Order's destruction, quite frankly I wish that they had succeeded, and killed that chakkar for what he did."

"What did he do aside from that abominable practice?"

"He orchestrated the Clone Wars pitted the Republic and the Separatist against each other so he could gain more power and he blamed it all on the Jedi, the Jedi and the Clones were the ones on the frontline giving their lives for a FARCE! While he sat back on comfortable Coruscant taking the credit, And everybody else was unfortunate to be caught in the middle of it."

Glorfindel and Iminye looked at the group surprisingly they hadn't been woken up by Jak's triade or at least they didn't show it, "If that is the case then why are they fighting the orcs?"

"That's because the Empire is a very Humanocentric society, meaning they see humans as the most important species in the Galaxy, that being said they do make some exceptions for some near human species, with only the more snobbish people hating them, and they also make exceptions for force sensitives, some times and train them to hunt Jedi."

"What do you mean?" Iminye asked.

"You remember our discussion how they mentioned that they had a connection to the life energy of the Universe? Some people call that life energy the Force, and Force sensitives can tap into that energy field and can do some pretty wondrous things, The Jedi try to use this power for good and tried and still try to help the people of the galaxy, the Sith use it for their own gain, the Empire is run by the Sith, however there is this rule that the sith have been following for the last thousand years called the rule of two, "Two sith there are no more no less, a master and an apprentice, one to embody the power the other to crave it." so instead of training more sith, they trained several adepts as tools and weapons to hunt down the Jedi or other people who don't submit to their rule, they are called Inquisitors and Dark Jedi." Jak explained, "Ulra and I fought one at that facility where we found that Jedi's remains."

 **(Flash Back)**

 _Jak swallowed back the bile in his throat that threatened to come out of his mouth, he had seen some pretty horrible things in his time, but for some reason this scene nearly caused him to lose his meager breakfast he had earlier that day, on the table before him laid the Jedi they came to get, he was human that much Jak could tell, his body was cut up and he was flayed._

" _... Jak." Ulra said her voice breaking, "I knew him."_

 _Jak turned to face her, "Who was he?" he asked curiously._

" _H.. he was one of my fellow initiates, Cadan Viel, he was one of my dearest f… freinds." she struggled to keep her emotions at bay._

" _Such a tragedy." a new voice said coming up behind, Jak and Ulra spun to see a human cyborg in the doorway they had come through, he had a cybernetic eyepiece on his right and almost the entire right half his face had metal grafts, he wore a dark tunic and a brown cloak, beneath the cloak Ulra and Jak could make out several hilts of jedi lightsabers, he walked in, procured one of the lightsabers and activated a blue blade, "I am High Inquisitor Tremayne, Welcome."_

 _Jak aimed his blasters at the new comer, "Were you the one responsible for this?!" Jak growled._

" _I just did my job and sometimes it can get… messy, You'll be pleased to know that despite the excruciating agony I put him through he refused to break, truly he was a great Jedi, pity." he sighed._

" _How could you?" Ulra asked, "Tremayne why?" she cried._

 _Tremayne looked at Ulra with a blank expression, "Why?" he repeated, "I don't need to explain myself to you, now surrender."_

" _Not going to happen." Jak growled._

 _Tremayne sighed, "You are going to make this difficult, I would stop and think, you I have no quarrel with Mandalorian, she's the one I want, if you leave now, I will forget all about you."_

 _Jak didn't answer he only shot at him, the Inquisitor deftly moved his blade and deflected the Bolt at Ulra, only for her to deflect it with her blade._

 **(Flashback end)**

"Tremayne turned out to be a very skilled combatant to say the least, we had to blow up the whole facility just to get away." Jak told them.

"Who's this Tremayne, and why does it sound like Ulra knew him?" Glorfindel asked.

"Because she did, Antinnis Tremayne was a Jedi padawan, and evidently survived the purge… by joining the Empire."

"Why?" Iminye asked surprised that someone would join the people who massacred them in the first place.

"I'd be lying if I said that I understood it myself, Ulra told me that Tremayne always had a fascination with the dark side of the force, and well he was a proud and vain individual, in the Clone Wars his master was killed and he was captured by the separatists, I have no idea what he went through but whatever it was he emerged a monster."

"... I don't know whether to hate him, or pity him." Iminye stated sadly.

Jak just sat there in silence as did Glorfindel, Jak turned to look out the window absently letting his mind wander for a bit, 'How would things be different if those masters succeeded?' he asked himself, Jak sighed he hated the quiet sometimes it caused his mind to become distracted.

Glorfindel sensed the Mandalorians restlessness and sought to spark a conversation, "I would like to know, what is a Clone?" he asked him

Jak regarded the Balrog slayer curious to see that he was interested in something like that, "A clone is… a physical copy of a being." he tried to explain, the elves seemed to understand what he was saying.

Glorfindel tilted his head slightly, "Would a clone have a Fea?" he asked him

Jak raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar word, "A Fea? What is that?" he asked.

"A soul or a spirit." Iminye simplified.

"Oh… of course why wouldn't they?" Jak asked, "They are produced like normal beings… somewhat."

"Ah so clone is your word for children."

"... Sure let's go with that." Jak sighed not really interested in trying to educate them on things at the moment, "They were some of the bravest soldiers I ever met… even though I was fighting them at first." He recalled.

"You were with these Separatists?" Iminye asked curiously.

Jak shook his head "Not really, I was part of a group of Mercenaries and we did work with the Separatists for a bit, but I began to see what the Death Watch was truly like at Carlac." Jak snarled.

"What happened?"

"The Death Watch decided to set up a base on the planet after our original base on Mandalore's moon, Concordia, was compromised, the people that lived on Carlac were a peaceful people and unfortunately naive to a fault, we took their women and turned them into servants, I had never felt so appalled in my life before that, eventually the town leader that we set up camp came to Pre Vizla our leader, and unfortunately my clansmen, and demanded that we return their women and he agreed."

Glorfindel had a bad feeling about that.

"Wait if agreed then what's the problem." Iminye asked

Jak crushed a piece of the stone pillar that he was holding onto, "Oh he honored the agreement, after he brought them back to the town he executed them in front of the entire village and had us burn it down."

"... Were you their?" Iminye asked.

"No I was tasked with guarding the camp, I heard about it from a passing thug when they came back from the massacre, I killed him with my bare hands and ran to the town, I planned to make my way off the planet and away from the Death Watch, but when I got to the town… I saw one of my fellows lying on the ground a saber wound in his diaphragm, and he was clutching the body of a woman, he was A'denn one of the few members of Death Watch I thought as honorable despite the mistakes he made, I found out the woman he married several months ago, I actually was going to kill him and end his suffering, he told me not to."

"Why?" Glorfindel asked surprised and enamoured with the tale.

"He said that 'This is my punishment, and I can't die till I honor a debt that can never be repaid.'"

"What was this debt?" Iminye asked.

"A'denn was an officer of the law on our home world several years ago, he grew frustrated with Satine, the duchess of our world, because he believed that her policies were making us weak, so he joined the Death Watch wanting to bring strength to Mandalore, after he passed his training he started bounty hunting, he took a Job to hunt down a slave smuggler, and he ended up killing him, but in the process he killed the man's eldest son, and his wife, then he found out the man was innocent, and he had killed three members of an innocent family right in front of the two youngest, he never forgave himself, and so he spent years trying to track down the person who hired him, but he hasn't had much luck, Pre called him, and in our culture when the Mandalore calls you answer, so he had to put the search on hold, after we went to Carlac he met one of the women and well began to court with her, and they eventually married, from what I gather he refused to take part in the slaughter and even tried to attack Pre, Pre stabbed him in the gut and killed his wife right in front of him, and left him to die in the middle of the ashen town."

"What did you do?" Iminye asked.

"Well I wasn't going to leave him there, so after we cremated his wife's body, we made plans to get off the planet, it seemed that someone wanted us to get off the planet though because the Republic and the Separatist came and had a small skirmish, that was the day I met Ulra." Jak stated as he looked over at the sleeping form of his beloved, "The Death Watch captured her, and A'denn and I agreed we couldn't leave her to their devices, so we concocted a plan to rescue her, and well it worked obviously, After that I decided to follow her, and A'denn left after getting proper medical treatment, both to get back at Pre, and the one who hired him."

"So you decided to fight with Ulra's government?" Glorfindel asked

"I did but I mostly focused my efforts on the Death Watch, and I stayed with Ulra for the entire war, up until order 66 and beyond till we arrived here."

"... What was order 66?" Iminye asked after a moment, Abruptly they heard someone whimper from the sleeping pile, Jak saw Jasmine take her arm and wrap it around Kes in an effort to comfort her.

"It was the order that saw the destruction of the Jedi, as you can tell it still bothers them immensely." Jak told them quietly

"I'm sorry." Iminye apologized.

"You asked a question I can't fault you for that, Jasmine, Kes, and Du were at the temple when it happened, along with two others that aren't with us at the moment, Xey, and Viridian, they barely managed to escape the temple with the help of the disgraced Jedi master Depa Billaba."

"Disgraced?" Glorfindel asked curious of the story behind that.

"Depa, experienced the horrors of war, and well she couldn't handle it so she cracked, and committed some very heinous acts at this one battle, her teacher Mace Windu went to retrieve her and after getting to her she attempted to kill herself and ended up putting herself into a coma, she and another man, a Kar Vaster were charged by the Republic for crimes against civilization, and that hasn't happened in the Republic since, Ulic Qel Droma nearly four millennia ago, well anyway she woke up shortly before order 66 and well I guess she sought to atone for what she did and proceeded to try and get any survivors she came across out of the temple, after that they got off of Coruscant they found themselves on the world of Carthean and met Janus, to make an incredibly long story short, Depa began to train Janus and the others, at some point Ulra and I ended up bringing weapons to the resistance they allied themselves with against this anti force sensitive group and decided to fight alongside them, the Empire came in and our resistance had to leave, Depa sacrificed herself to Darth Vader so we could escape, after several months we needed to find resources to keep our ship running and we were sent out here, we got shot down and crashed on your world."

The elves thought for a moment, "You all have been through so much."

Jak merely chuckled without humor at that, "Yeah we have, and we're still alive, for better or worse."

"Everything happens for a reason Jak of Mandalore." Glorfindel told him.

Jak nodded in agreement, "True." he agreed, "So do you have any questions?"

"Who's this Darth Vader?" Glorfindel asked, "I noticed that when you uttered his name you tensed."

Jak rose an eyebrow behind his helmet, 'well this guy is observant,' he thought to himself, "Vader is the current apprentice to Darth Sidious, also known as Palpatine, and the supreme commander of the imperial military, and a notorious Jedi killer, I heard of stories where he killed fifty Jedi at once, I think that's all propaganda, but even still he is not to be underestimated, according to Du, Kes, Jasmine, Viridian and Xey, Vader was once the hero with no fear Anakin Skywalker, they confronted him at the Temple, and only survived thanks to Sera Keto, and the Jedi BattleMaster Cin Dralig."

The elves listened for more, "Who was this Anakin skywalker?" Iminye asked.

"He was the greatest hero to the Jedi during the Clone Wars along side his teacher Obi-wan Kenobi, it was said that the two of them together we're unstoppable, but he eventually fell and became the one everyone fears now."

"... I'm sorry to hear that, do you know why?"

"No, we don't." a voice said from the sleeping pile the trio looked over to see Du sitting up and stretching, "And we don't much care either, he is our enemy now, and we will have to deal with him if we want to take down the Empire."

"... I see." Iminye said, "The empire hasn't done anything to us though, they have mostly fought against the orcs and other fell creatures, King Thranduil has even allied with them, but the rest of us are… more weary and now after what you told us… well I don't think we will want to do any more business with them."

"If you do that you'll only make them suspicious and if they find out that you've been helping Jedi fugitives." Du said, "they will bring the hammer down on you hard."

"They will not succeed ," Glorfindel proclaimed, "the Valar and Iluvatar himself would not allow it." he told them

"... You said you wanted to take us to Rivendell right?" Jak asked, the elves nodded in confirmation, "how do we know that you won't turn us in."

Glorfindel raised an eyebrow, "Why would we do that? Elrond has no desire to do such a thing, and after everything you told us he wouldn't want any of you to go through that evil." he spat

"... Thank you." Kes murmured from her spot, still nestled in Jasmine's embrace

Glorfindel looked over to the east, and smiled, "Is one of your missing companions a young girl, with white hair, pale skin, and silver eyes?"

Du raised an eybrow, "That sounds like Xey… but her eyes are dead looking, she lost the ability to see during her torture sessions with… a group who hates people with our gifts." Du explained.

"My Lord Elrond is a skilled healer and appears to have restored your friend's sight." Glorfindel said much to every one of the group's surprise as all those still laying down sat up.

"Not even Ulra could do that and she's an incredible healer." Du muttered surprised.

"You can see that far?" Jak asked.

"Yes." Glorfindel answered simply, "and I can see that our journey to Imladris will be perilous." he added his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Orcs?" Iminye asked coming up beside him.

"Worse, I see Trolls, Back Uruks, and Olog hai as well as the sky orcs." Glorfindel told her.

Iminye looked at him in shock, "A force like that hasn't been seen in these lands since…" she trailed off

"Angmar." Glorfindel finished grimmly.

"Sky orcs?" Du asked.

"The ones that grounded ones that your empire call the far outsiders." Iminye answered.

"Oh the Yuuzhan Vong." Jak said in realization, "how long will it take to reach Imladris?"

"21 days on foot."

"So we have at least 21 days of fighting ahead of us." Du stated, "Sounds like a wet dream for you." the young Jedi teased the Mandalorian, who rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." he responded though he wouldn't deny, a challenge did sound great.

 **(Back with the Company)**

Almost three weeks had past since that night, and now Thorin's company were in the middle of a downpour, "Here, Mister Gandalf, can you do something about this deluge?" Nori asked

"It is raining master dwarf and it will continue to rain till the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world you should find yourself another wizard."

"Are there any?" Bilbo asked

"What?

"Other wizards." Bilbo clarified

"There are five of us, the greatest of our order is Saruman the White, then there are the two blue wizards… eh I've quite forgotten their name." Viridian couldn't help but think that was a bit mean on his part.

"And who is the fifth?" Viridian asked.

"That would be Radagast the Brown."

"Is he a great wizard or more like you?" Bilbo asked, Viridian was about to rebuke him for being a bit rude.

"I think he is a very great wizard, in his own way, he's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others, he keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the east, and a good thing too for always evil will try to find a foothold in this world." after that the company drifted into silence.

"Hey Viridian can you do something about this rain?"

Viridian sighed, "Sorry Nori, I can't, My friend Janus could but he's not here is he?"

Nori cursed under his breath but still continued, after a while the company came to the ruins of a house.

"We'll camp here for the night." Thorin called out, "Fili, Kili look after the ponies make sure you stay with them. Oin, Gloin get a fire going."

"A farmer and his family used live here, I think it would be wiser to move on, we could make for the hidden valley." Gandalf advised.

"I already told you I will not go near that place."

Viridian sighed in annoyance, "Why not?" the Jedi asked

"The elves could help us we could get food, rest, advice."

"I do not need their advice." Thorin snarled.

"You're being childish." Viridian butted in.

"A dragon attacks Erebor and the elves did nothing, Orcs plunder Moria and desecrate our sacred halls all the while the Elves stood by and looked on."

Viridian stopped short, "Alright I can understand your bitterness, but come on who governs the Hidden Valley?" Viridian asked Gandalf.

"Lord Elrond, and your friends are there waiting for you." Gandalf told him.

Viridian's eyes widened, "Now we have to go there." he told him.

"No." Thorin refused.

Viridian got on his knees in front of Thorin, "I have never asked you of anything in our entire journey, please Thorin Oakenshield allow me to reunite with my friends and kin, please." he pleaded.

Thorin stared at Viridian for a moment, before sighing, "Very well we'll head there tomorrow." he agreed reluctantly.

"Thank you."

Celebion was looking around the house to see what had happened, he looked around for several minutes, before he ran to Thorin, "What ever happened here was recent, I suspect trolls."

Thorin looked at him in alarm, "We'll be sure to keep an eye out." he told him, trusting the rangers instincts.

Gandalf smiled to himself, "If you'll excuse me Thorin, I will go to look ahead."

"Very well." Thorin nodded, with that Gandalf took the horse and went on ahead, Thorin called out to Bombur, "Bombur we're hungry." the biggest dwarf nodded and began to get dinner ready, some time had gone by and the sun had gone down.

"He's not back yet." Bilbo stated.

"Who isn't?" Bofur asked as he served the dwarves the stew that Bombur made.

"Gandalf." Bilbo clarified.

"He's a Wizard he does as he chooses, here take this to the lads." he asked him.

"Bilbo." Viridian started, catching the Hobbit's attention, "If it will make you feel better I'll go look for him." he told him

Bilbo looked uncertain, "Are you sure."

"Don't worry about me, I can handle myself." Viridian said with a smile as he walked over to his steed and took the Bio armor and put it on, "Better safe than sorry." he told them and headed off into the night.

Viridian looked around for a good fifteen minutes with no sign of the Grey Wizard, "Well I shouldn't be too worried Gandalf is far more powerfull then I ever will be." he said to himself, as he walked back to camp to find it empty, Viridian stretched out with his senses and found the company they all seemed to be terrified, he also sensed three large life forms in their vicinity, he bolted in that direction, he came to a stop just outside the clearing, he saw the Dwarves all tied up some in a pile next to a large pile, some on a spit over a fire, Celebion looked to be unconscious under the boot of another humanoid that was talking to the trolls.

"What is your answer?" the mysterious person asked.

"We'll mull it over." one of the trolls said.

"I'd prefer one tonight."

"Laying siege to the elven city is not an easy task." another troll said.

"You will be with the Legions of the misty mountains." the silhouette sighed in annoyance.

Bilbo looked absolutely terrified, he looked over and saw Viridian in the tree line and mouthed at him.

Viridian looked at him and read his lips, 'Vong. Well poodoo,' Viridian thought to himself, so the Vong were going to lead an attack on one of the Elven Cities? That can't be good.

Viridian heard the Vong sniff the air, and snarled a bit, "So there is another one of you Dunedain here?" he asked out into the wilderness.

Viridian cursed under his breath.

"You may as well come out now, or my Staff gets to feast on your friend." the Vong said holding up his Amphistaff.

Viridian clenched his fist and came into the clearing.

"Hey Bert it's another human can we eat him too?"

"I don't see why not."

With that the more scrawny troll made his way to Viridian.

"Take one more step and just see what happens you pitiful excuse of a Rancor." Viridian threatened

"Ha, and what are you going to AHHHHH!" the Troll suddenly found himself on his ass which happened to land on a very sharp rock.

"Je'daii!" the Vong turned around, and saw Viridian wearing the armor of the Yuuzhan Vong Warriors, "Where did you get that?!" he asked.

Viridian didn't answer he only glared at the Vong, the Vong snarled and did a hand gesture his snake stiffened into a spear and he held it to Celebion's back.

"Answer me heathen!" he barked.

Viridian grinned at the Vong all the while thinking of ways to save Celebion without hurting him, "I took it off a warrior after I knocked him out,"

"You shamed him!" he shouted at him in disbelief.

"Yes I did." Viridian grinned,

The warrior glared at him for a moment before a foul grin spread across his face as well, "Have you ever heard of Vega Ryal?"

Viridian dropped the grin and a shocked expression came upon his face, "What does he have to do with anything?"

"You should know we shamed him too, he squealed and cried so much it was beautiful to watch a mighty Je'daii being brought so low." he chuckled.

Viridian began to shake with absolute rage, "You tortured a child, and you call that beautiful?" he snarled, the Company could feel the intense anger pouring out of Viridian, Fili and Kili could even see he had specks of Gold appearing in his eyes.

"Absolutely, to be brought close to the gods is a beautiful thing indeed." the Warrior said taking great satisfaction in bringing this anger out of the young Jedi.

Viridian couldn't take it any more, he let out a scream of pure unadulterated rage, the Company all winced as their ears screamed in protest, the flames of the fires doused, and the leaves shook from the scream, "I'M GOING TO KRIFFING KILL YOU!" Viridian Screamed, as he pushed off from his standing position and landed a knee in the Vong's face, the company heard a sickening crack, but the Vong remained standing in fact his helmet was destroyed but he looked fine save for the black blood dripping down his face, the Amphistaff was disoriented from the scream, Viridian took the opportunity to grab it by the head and pull its head from its body effectively killing it.

The Vong recovered and began to wrestle with the angered Jedi, all the while the troll that Viridian pushed over attempted to come up behind him again, Viridian sensed him approach, so he grabbed the Vong more firmly by the arms and with all his strength and then some, threw the Vong into the troll, causing the troll to fall over from the impact, Viridian then sent telekinetic shoves at the other trolls knocking them over and began to rouse Celebion.

"Celebion, wake up and get the others up, That vong is mine." he snarled as he charged again the two lightsabers on his hip flying to his hands, their blades activated and Viridian leaped at the Vong who was scrambling away, just then the Rock split and the the sun hit the three trolls, Viridian didn't care he was only interested in killing the Vong, the Vong ran up the beaten path with Viridian in hot pursuit.

"Viridian stop!" Gandalf shouted out to no avail.

At some point the Vong pulled out a strange blade about one meter long and rigid it looked like a sword, and he turned to face the young Jedi who stopped four meters away from him.

Viridian charged with his sabers at the ready with one he tangled with the Vong's sword and the other he attempted to stab in the gaps which failed, with some deft swordplay on the Vong's part he disarmed Viridian of one of his swords.

Viridian responded with a vicious punch to the Vong's face, followed up with tripping him up with his blade, only for the warrior to tackle Viridian into a tree causing them both to lose their weapons, their fight descended unceremoniously into a brawl each trading punches, and kicks, grappling, claws on the Vong's part, and Viridian even resorted to biting at one point. 

This brawl lasted for several minutes, before help came in the form of Gandalf, smacking the warrior in the head with his staff knocking him out and the Dwarves and Celebion physically restraining Viridian.

"LET ME GO I'LL KILL HIM!" Viridian shouted.

"VIRIDIAN MALLORY YOU WILL CALM DOWN NOW!" Gandalf shouted, a dark aura spreading out from the Grey Wizard, Viridian immediately calmed down and even became submissive at the Wizards presence, Viridian began to whimper and tears started to fall, with that Gandalf walked up to the distraught young man and pulled him into a hug, "It's alright now."

After a moment the Company waited for Viridian to compose himself, before Thorin asked, "Who is Vega Ryal?" he asked him.

Viridian let out a shaky breath, "He was one of the Jedi initiates, that My friends and I helped escort out of the temple when Order 66 was issued, my best friend Daniel Valo saw him as a friend and kind of adopted him as a brother and in a way we all did, I have no idea where they are now."

"How old would he be?" Celebion asked.

"Now? About fourteen or fifteen, he was approaching twelve when the attack on the temple happend." Viridian answered.

"I'm so sorry." Thorin sighed.

"No I am sorry for losing it back there, I take it Gandalf told you the dangers if that happens."

"You could eventually become an agent of evil." Balin answered, "if you lose control."

"Sounds right." Viridian sighed bitterly, "What are we going to do about him?"

"Considering he knows something about your kin, I will allow him to be interrogated." Thorin said.

"He also said something about they trying to besiege an elven city." Viridian added.

Gandalf nodded to show he heard that, "I will get the details necessary, first let's look for the troll hoard."

"Agreed," Thorin said, then turned to the others, "Someone tie this filth up, and take his armor." he commanded, Thorin, Gandalf, Viridian, Dwalin, Gloin, and several others followed the path till they came to the troll hoard.

As they entered the smell hit them hard. "What on Earth is that foul stench." someone asked.

"It's a troll hoard." Gandalf said as if it were obvious, which it was, the group walked through the hoard, there were some gold and jewels on the ground, this prompted Gloin to ask Nori to get a shovel, Viridian looked over at Thorin and saw that he picked up two well made swords.

"These swords weren't made by any troll." Thorin said in wonder as he handed one of to Gandalf.

"Nor were they made by any smith among men." Gandalf added, "these were forged in Gondolin, by the high elves."

Thorin stared at his blade for a moment, "You could not wish for a finer blade." Gandalf told him, Thorin looked at him and nodded, before grabbing the hilt, pulling it out a bit, and studying the blade, Viridian had to admit it looked beautiful, Viridian went deeper into the cave, and stopped short when he felt his foot hit a sword, he looked down and saw a similar sword to Gandalf's seeing no harm in having a back up he bent down and picked it up, the Sword resonated with power and he wondered briefly if it would function in the same way as the ancient weapons of the Jedi and the Sith before the invention of Lightsabers, he took his lightsaber and cleared off the webbing from the sword and fastened the blade to his hip, he was about to leave, before he spotted an envelope with a strange seal on it strange for this world anyway.

"What is this doing here." Viridian asked picking up the envelope, he could tell that whatever its contents were, were pretty powerful.

"What is the matter young Viridian." Gandalf asked.

Viridian turned to him the envelope in his hand, "This seal look at it." he told him.

Gandalf studied the seal for a bit, "I don't recognise it." Gandalf said surprised.

"I do." VIridian said, "it is the symbol of my Order." he explained, much to Gandalf's surprise as well as Thorin's who was watching the encounter.

"What is it doing in this place?" Thorin asked.

"I have no idea." Viridian admitted, "What I am curious about is how it got here."

"Well there are some in Middle Earth who have the gift of far sight, perhaps they left a gift for you." Gandalf proposed.

Viridian stared at the envelope for a moment, "I'll wait till we get to Rivendell and meet my friends before I open this thing." he decided as he pocketed the envelope.

"A good idea, Let's get out of this foul place." Thorin beckoned, Viridian nodded and began walking out and saw Oin, Gloin, and Nori filling in a hole.

"We're making a long term deposit." Gloin answered the unasked question, Viridian shrugged and walked out of the troll cave with the others soon following, Viridian walked to the clearing where he saw the Vong warrior that provoked him to anger, was tied to a tree and gagged so he couldn't speak and he looked absolutely livid.

Gandalf strode up to him and removed the gag, only for the warrior to spit at him, Gandalf merely sighed at this behavior, "I'm going to ask you some questions and you will answer." Gandalf told him, causing the warrior to laugh at him as if he was joking.

"We know your Je'daii tricks don't work on the children of Yun Yuuzhan." the Vong said smugly.

Viridian didn't even bother telling him that the Force worked on both the orcs and the trolls so far, though if he was honest with himself he didn't really try to use the Force on the Vong, 'I will have to test that later.' he noted to himself.

"How do you know Vega Ryal?" Gandalf asked.

"We captured the Je'daii Ryal, less than two years ago and had him brought to the Koros Strohna Do'Nom." he answered, "What the…. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?"

"Where is the Koros Strohna Do'Nom." Gandalf asked instead.

"Je'dai Valo and several others lead a fleet of the chiss and a another mix match fleet to attack the Koros Strohna, Ryal escaped and the ship crashed onto a world on the other side of this region of space, the Je'dai have built a base there, STOP IT!"

Viridian looked shocked and happy, Vega was alright, and Daniel was alive and well, all he had to do was find his friends finish the quest and figure a way off this planet.

Gandalf could sense Viridian's elation, and looked at him with a smile, "What City do you plan to attack and when?"

"The City of Imladris in five… AHHHHHHHHHHH" the Vong abruptly screamed and thrashed about before finally going limp, black blood coming out of his eyes, 'nose', and mouth.

"What just happened?" Bilbo asked.

"He took his own life." Gandalf said with pity. Celebion walked up to him and drove a his knife into the warriors skull just to make sure.

"I'd rather not take any chances with these things." Celebion told Gandalf who nodded in understanding.

Before another word could be said another sound was heard in the distance the trample of feet, "Arm your selves." Gandalf told them, Viridian drew his newly acquired sword deciding to let his lightsabers to cool down a bit, all the while he stood next to Bilbo ready to defend him should he need to, he saw that Bilbo also had a blade a small one though, Viridian made a mental note to get the hobbit a shield and to help train him how to defend himself when they had the chance.

Abruptly a bunch of rabbits pulling a sleigh jumped into the clearing with the rider quite literally screaming Bloody murder, he came to a stop and Viridian studied the strange man he wore brown robes and seemed quite dirty, his hair was also brown.

"It's alright my friends this is Radagast, how are you my old friend?" Gandalf asked the Brown Wizard.

Radagast looked like he was about to speak but always seemed to lose his train of thought, "Oh I had a thought it was right on the tip of my tongue, oh, it's not a thought at all, it's a little stick insect." as he said this he opened his mouth and pulled a small insect out of his mouth, the company looked among each other in surprise that this man was a wizard.

After a bit the Company decided to tend to their own things while Gandalf and Radagast talked, Viridian stayed close by and dropped eaves on the conversation, "The Greenwood is sick Gandalf, nothing grows there anymore, at least nothing good, then there were these spiders they looked like some kind of spawn of Ungoliant, Gandalf they came from Dol-Guldur." as soon as Radagast said that Gandalf went rigid.

"Dol-Guldur?" Gandalf asked, "Are you certain?" he asked the Brown Wizard.

Radagast procured a strange object from his cloak and held it out to Gandalf, Viridian could sense a sickening darkness emanating from that object, Gandalf unwrapped the object and Viridian could make out the hilt of a dagger or sword, he began to walk forward to study the object further, only for Gandalf to quickly douse the object and hide it in his cloak.

"You know what that is Gandalf." Radagast stated.

"The White Council will make to march on that fortress soon my friend, I will be there myself."

Viridian was so confused what was he talking about, one thing he knew he was going to do when they reached safety was confront Gandalf about it.

Abruptly they heard howling in the distance, Bilbo looked up in alarm as did the rest of the Company, "What was that? Was that a wolf? Are their wolves out their?" Bilbo asked in alarm.

"A Wolf? No that wasn't a wolf." Bofur said on edge, Viridian looked up the small hill and saw a giant CAnine like animal.

"Look out!" Viridian shouted, as he lept at the animal his new blade at the ready, the Warg saw his sword and Viridian could actually sense quite a bit of fear coming from the creature, just before Viridian's blade cut into its body and into its neck.

"Kili get out your bow!" Thorin shouted, as another Warg came up behind him, Kili shot the animal and it stumbled down the hill past Thorin who took his elven sword and cut into the downed Warg, and several of the other dwarves beat it to death with their weapons, "Warg scouts which means an orc pack is not far behind." Thorin told them.

"Orc Pack?" Bilbo asked in alarm.

Viridian pulled his Sword out of the Wargs body and flicked it clean.

"Who did you tell of your quest aside from your kin?" Gandalf asked.

"No one." Thorin answered.

"Who did you tell!?" Gandalf asked more urgently.

"No one I swear!" Thorin answered honestly

"You're being hunted!" Gandalf exclaimed coming to the obvious conclusion.

"We won't be able to outrun them."

"Our ponies they bolted, only Celebion's horse is left."

Viridian stepped forward "I will hold them off till you get to safety." he offered.

"I will not allow a member of my Company to die needlessly." Thorin shot that down.

"I will draw them off." Radagast said.

"These are Gundabad Wargs they will outrun you." Gandalf stated.

"These are Rhosgobel Rabbits." Radagast said, causing Gandalf to look at him in surprise, A grin broke out over the Brown Wizard's Face, "I'd like to see them try."

With that Radagast got on his sleigh and began leading the Wargs on a roundabout chase Celebion let his horse go off in the opposite direction knowing that he would be fine.

The Company ran across the planes while Radagast lead the Wargs by the nose, after a few minutes of hiding and running one of the riders and his steed was on the rock that they were hiding behind, Thorin nodded to Kili, and the young Dwarf, knocked his bow before running out catching the Warg and Orcs attention, he shot the Warg in the shoulder, While Viridian reached out with the force and pulled both animal and rider down into the midst of their group where they were quickly dispatched but not before the Warg and the Orc let out howls of pain and let the rest of the pack know where they were.

"RUN!" Gandalf ordered, with that they bolted across the planes, they ran for several minutes before they realized that they were trapped on all sides, the Wargs then herded them to a small rock formation.

"They have us surrounded." Thorin said his sword at the ready, "Defencive formation!"

Viridian held his sword at the ready and stood next to Celebion, the Orcs and the Wargs seemed to regard Viridian with a hesitant anger, 'Why, what is this sword's history?' he asked himself, and he also wondered Thorin's and Gandalf's sword's history as well even Bilbo's blade, 'Now's not the time." he thought to himself as one of the Wargs brought up the courage and charged him, Viridian stabbed the blade into its head then ripped it out, he absently noted that the blade started to glow blue, 'huh interesting.' he risked a glance and saw that Thorin's blade did the same as did Bilbo's, 'hmn I will have to look into that later.' another Warg charged him, he reached out with the force and pulled its legs out from under it, causing it to trip up and fall.

"Where's Gandalf!" one of the dwarves shouted.

"He's abandon us!" Dwalin shouted.

Kili shot a rider off of his steed and killed it but the Warg still snarled as it approached, the company all backed up a bit and braced themselves in preparation for the beasts charge.

"This way you fools!" Gandalf shouted from a secret path near in the rocks, as he popped up and descended again.

Thorin and the rest of the Company bolted for the rocks, Viridian, Celebion, Kili, and Thorin keeping watch as the company dropped in one by one, "Kili Come on!" Thorin called for his nephew, Kili turned and ran to the rocks, While Viridian killed the Wargs that came towards him.

"Celebion you next!" Viridian ordered.

The ranger looked uncertain but Viridian didn't give him the option as he caused him to fall into the opening.

"Come on Viridian!" Thorin shouted, abruptly an object hit Thorin with an audible 'Thud' and he fell into the hole.

Viridian turned to see some Vong Warriors with their weapons and some strange insect like creatures in their hands, he then heard a buzzing sound and saw a bug fly past him and back into the warriors hands, behind the Warriors he saw several Orcs they were tall about man high and armed with some decent weapons, some Trolls wearing some heavy armor and large swords and hammers, and Wargs with Riders on them.

Viridian briefly considered making a break for the hole but then what was to stop the enemy from following them, Viridian took a deep breath and adopted a defensive stance, all the while he held his saber at the ready in his off hand and deactivated, Abruptly he heard what sounded like a rocket over head, then a rocket flew down into the enemy's formation, Viridian looked up to see a Man in full armor land right beside him in the armor styled after the Mandalorians, Viridian grinned.

"You looked like you could use some help." the man said as he aimed his blaster pistols at the enemy.

"Any help is appreciated Jak."

"We should save the chat for later, we gotta get down to business and go!" Du exclaimed coming up on Viridian's other side along with, Kes, Janus, Ulra, and Jasmine on the other side of Jak two strangers appeared they had an odd but pleasant aura about them, they were armed with swords and armored lightly.

"You're right let's get 'em." Viridian stated, with that they all charged the enemy

 **AN: I shall explain, Gandalf in the actual lore has already been to Dol-Guldur, that's where he got the Map and Key to Erebor from a very messed up Thrain, the thing about the wizards is that they were sent to Middle Earth to keep Sauron at bay, I never understood why the movies made it look like they weren't aware of Sauron still being alive but whatever, well Saruman was just trying to get the ring and what not so there is that, Daniel and Vega are main character in my other story Soul of the Jedi if you want to check it out you'll find it, also the stalker in the woods called Viridian a cultist guess what the two Blues did? Also I made all the elven swords glow blue because why not?**

 **any way I hope you all enjoyed see you next time**


	7. Reunion

****AN. well this was fast I was actually planning for a longer chapter but I was just so satisfied with how this turned out that I decided to post a short chapter instead never the less I hope you all enjoy.****

 ** **Disclaimer: I own Neither, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars, they belong to Tolkien, and George Lucas respectively (well Disney now but meh I don't care)****

 **Chapter six (Reunion)**

Viridian met his foe, a Vong warrior starting off with a draw cut he used the force to strengthen the weapon, and caused the blade that was already glowing blue to shine brighter than the sun, the Vong attempted to parry but instead of meeting the blade and holding up like it had against lightsabers, the blade cut into the amphistaff almost all the way through, surprising the Vong, and Viridian immensely, Viridian followed up by bringing his other hand with the deactivated saber up to the Vong's face, and activated the blade killing the warrior as the plasma blade went through his head like a hot knife through butter.

"Next?" Viridian called, the Orcs, Trolls, and Wargs all backed away from him in fear only the Vong seemed ready to face him, "Have it your way." Viridian said and threw a telekinetic shove at one of the Vong, it stumbled a bit but remained upright, 'so they do resist the force, timing is key.' he thought to himself and attacked another Vong warrior.

Jak rushed at one of the trolls that stood in their way, using his jetpack to get eye level with the beast and stab it in the eye with his combat knife, it roared both in pain and anger, and lashed out at him, he flew out of its reach and shot it in the head, the hide held up and it grabbed a small ball of metal on its hip and threw it at him, the object flew true only for it to stop in mid air, spin a bit and be thrown back into the troll with such force that it was knocked off its feet and the air knocked out of its lungs, Jak nodded as he tackled into the beast took his blasters and shot it in its roaring mouth, the bolt of plasma hit the roof of its mouth and liquified the brain killing the creature instantly.

Du lept into the air and brought his saber down, bisecting one of the Olog-Hai, before he turned and threw his saber bisecting two orcs before summoning the saber back to his hand and jumping to a Vong and separating its head from his shoulder all in the span of five seconds.

Kes, killed several orcs in no time before she telekinetically opened a pouch on her hip and threw several of the beskar ball bearings out and at the Vong at incredible velocity like a flechette launcher, causing the warriors to fall over with several wounds and either dead or bleeding out.

Ulra attempted to fight a Vong warrior then she quickly realized that due to the fact that she couldn't see the damn thing she had no idea how to face one, the vong struck her, she thanked Jak for helping her get the armor she currently wore or else this would be a one sided fight in the vong's favor, she activated the flame projector on her armor and sent it in the vong's general direction, the Vong screamed and pushed forward and tackled the Miraluka to the ground, only to make another scream followed by a loud wet crunch, Ulra felt hot blood fall onto her neck dampening the undersuit she wore, Ulra then saw Jak had quite literally crushed the Vong's head with his hands.

Jasmine fought a Vong with an amphistaff, the creature went slack wrapped itself around the blade of her lightsaber and made to bite her face, thinking quickly she grabbed the creature by the head and sent a current of electricity into the creature causing it to spazz and the Vong to grip the creature even more firmly, crushing where it was holding onto it thanks to the electrical current, Jasmine followed up by extending her retractable claws and tearing off the face of her opponent, the alien roared in agony but punched the Cathar in response and tackled her to the ground and wrestled with her, Causing Jasmine to snarl and proceed to take her other hand and dig her claws into the Vongs head, all the while the Vong continued to Pummel her and tried to strangle her, Jasmine called for an object and a rock came to her hand, she smacked the Vong in the side of the head with it, causing it to roll off of her then she pinned it and began to smash the rock in its head over and over again till it stopped moving, after that she stood up summoned her lightsaber to her and went into a coughing fit while she soothed her throat after relieving it of the powerful grip.

Du grappled with a Warg trying to bite him, before a sword impaled the beast in the side and into its heart killing it instantly, Du looked at his savior and saw that it was Glorfindel who helped him up.

"Come friend we can't play with the animals long we have a battle to win." the gold haired elf stated in jest.

"Ha Funny." Du shouted and threw his blade like a Javelin into another Olog-Hai, the blade entered the diaphragm area and the creature roared at him and made to charge, only for Du to drag his lightsaber through the creature's body effectively cutting it up, before going up through the head and killing it as its brain was destroyed.

Janus adjusted the wind currents underneath several Vong and Orcs lifting them off the ground and spinning them around, then together he and Iminye decapitated them.

Glorfindel was locked in combat with two Vong warriors and three Uruks, he slit the throat of one of the Vong, and beheaded one of the Uruks, then he took his dagger and stabbed another Uruk in the head killing the creature instantly, upon seeing that the last of his enemies had helmets, Glorfindel grabbed his sword by the blade and smacking the Vong over the head with the the hilt three times severely concussing the alien invader, before he kicked him and knocked him over, the last Uruk turned and ran away.

Then they heard it, a horn and the trample of horses, Kes looked up and saw several mounted Archers on horses coming in and shooting the remaining enemy forces, the Warg riders made a break for it along with several of the Orcs, only the Vong and Olog-Hai remained and were quickly wiped out, by the elves, Jedi, and Mandalorian.

Viridian flicked his sword clean and sheathed it quickly, he turned to the rock formation, before he turned to his fellows and smiled, "It's so nice to see you all again!" he exclaimed as he ran up to them, "is anyone hurt?" he asked concerned.

Jasmine rubbed her throat , "I'll live." she croaked.

Du absently rubbed his arm that was scratched by that warg, "Nothing a little bandage can't fix." he grinned.

"I'm fine." Kes assured him.

"As am I." Ulra nodded.

Jak nodded to show that he was fine.

Viridian nodded and smiled only for an alarmed look to replace it, "Where's Xey? Did she not come with you guys?"

"You need not worry my young friend." one of the riders stated as he approached them, "You friend is at Imladris awaiting our arrival."

Glorfindel bowed in gratitude, "Thank you my Lord Elrond for your timely arrival."

The elf lord smiled warmly, "I'd say that my arrival was unneeded, but you're welcome my friend, young Viridian, where is Gandalf I had thought he was accompanying you."

Viridian turned to to the rock formation that the company went down into, "He lead the company that way, where does that lead?" he asked him.

"It is another way to my home, they are waiting for you at the bottom of the entrance I suggest you go with them I will meet you at the front gate." Elrond told the young Jedi.

Viridian nodded and turned to the others, "I will see you all soon?" he asked them.

"Count on it," Du stated, knowing that Viridian didn't want to spook whoever he was traveling with, with the others.

With that Viridian slid through the hole and came to see the rest of the company waiting for him.

"Viridian you made it." Kili exclaimed.

Thorin was nursing his bump on the head from that odd insect creature, "We heard sounds of battle what happened up there?"

Viridian smiled, "I had a touching reunion with my kin and we battled a bunch of fell creatures to celebrate, they will meet us at Rivendell." he told them

"Sounds like a fine reunion." Gloin exclaimed patting Viridian on the back with a laugh, with that the company followed the narrow path till it came to the hidden valley, the Dwarves all saw the elven city, Viridian could sense their hesitation and he could understand why the Elves and the Dwarves did not get along all that well he had no idea why they didn't but they didn't.

Viridian took in the breathtaking view, the city while small compared to the literal city planet that he grew up on, was the most beautiful piece of architecture he had ever seen, the buildings were smooth stone or marble with a beige almost white color, with wooden supports that only added to the marvelous beauty, the location of the city also really framed the surpassing beauty, there were waterfalls and rivers flowing through the city and into the woods around the vally, a slight mist covered the valley giving it an almost heavenly feel, Viridian felt the lightside of the force resonate strongly here and he knew that he had entered a lightside nexus just as if not more potent than that of the Jedi temples, If Viridian didn't know any better he would have thought he was approaching a Jedi sanctuary

"The city of Imladris, in the common tongue it is called by another name." Gandalf told them

"Rivendell." Bilbo stated enamoured, Viridian could tell that the hobbit was incredibly excited, and Celebion looked very peaceful.

"Well then," Viridian stated breaking the silence, and getting the company's attention "what are we waiting for?" he asked them.

With that the company steeled themselves and trudged forward to the elven city, they approached the gate and were greeted by one of the elves.

"Mithrandir welcome." he stated.

Gandalf walked forward and greeted the elf, asking for Elrond.

"My lord Elrond is not here."

"Oh, where is he?"

"He was with the horsemen that assisted us dealing with those creatures." Viridian told Gandalf, who nodded in understanding, then a horn sounded and the company turned to see the Horses coming over the bridge with Viridian's friends coming in behind them.

Thorin abruptly called for the company to fall into a defencive formation, much to Viridian's confusion, as he and Bilbo were pulled into the center of the group.

"What are you doing?" Viridian asked surprised, after a moment the horses all circled them, and he sighed exasperated, "I thought that you agreed to come here Thorin, usually you don't try to start a fight with our hosts."

"They started it." Thorin said.

"How?" Viridian asked, "they have to come this way, to get into the city that they live in."

Thorin opened his mouth only to shut it again finally he just decided to remain quiet.

"Melonin." Gandalf called to Elrond.

Elrond smiled warmly and got down from his horse, "Welcome Gandalf, we came across small armed force near our secret entrance, your fellow over there along with his friends took care of most of them when we showed up." Elrond stated pointing at Viridian and the other Jedi and Mandalorian who all shifted a bit upon having attention brought upon them, "But, seldom does such a force venture so close to our borders, Gandalf should I be worried?" Elrond asked concerned.

Gandalf turned to Thorin, "Perhaps Thorin Oakenshield should be the one to tell you."

The Dwarf king looked at Gandalf a bit peeved, before he saw him give him a subtle wink, "We have reason to believe that your city will be attacked, my lord, My company and I…" he took a breath, "Are willing to help you defend this place from these foul creatures."

Elrond raised an eyebrow at that while the rest of the company stared at the King in Exile in surprise, "... Thank you Thorin son of Thrain, do you know when they will attack?" Elrond asked.

"Five… sorry I can't offer any more then that the filth died before he could finish." Thorin told the Elf Lord

"So anywhere from FIve hours, Five days, or Five weeks," Viridian piped in.

"Five hours is not enough time to mobilize such a force, we should be ready in five days." Glorfindel stated.

Elrond nodded, "Well in the meantime, I imagine you all are tired from your long Journey please accept my hospitality and relieve your burdens for as long as you wish." he told them, "Dinner will be ready within the hour." he told them and walked into the city, the Company began to follow them, before they realised that Viridian wasn't following.

"Aren't you coming?" Fili asked.

Viridian looked at his friends before turning back to the company, "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." he told them

Thorin nodded and smiled, then exclaimed something in dwarvish and the others all followed, Viridian turned to the others

"I didn't want to do this back there." He told them and then one by one he hugged each of the group.

Abruptly the group all heard a gasp come from the staircase leading to the main city, Viridian turned and stopped short, at the top of the stairs stood a young woman, she had chalk pale skin and white hair that flowed down to the center of her back, she wore a white sun dress that seemed to catch and throw the rays of the setting sun in all directions, her silver eyes were full of tears of joy, silver eyes that Viridian thought he'd never see again, "Xey?" Viridian asked surprised.

With that the woman bolted down the stares and tackled Viridian in a hug, "You're all alive!" she cried joyously, Viridian wrapped his arms around her tightly, and put his chin atop her head, and everyone else joined in a group hug.

Meanwhile at the cliff side, Jaing looked down at the elven city through a pair of Macro Binoculars, "The Jedi are here alright, and there are two more." the clone wars veteran stated.

Jane nodded to show he heared him, "Some one get Commander Libel on the call, we'll await further instructions." he told the team.

 **Like I said it was a bit short but like I also said I was happy with how it turned out as was my beta reader, I know there are questions like 'How can a metal sword cut something a lightsaber can't' I will offer you who read this story and actually care What I hope is a very satisfying answer to that question but for now the next chapters name is**

 **'The Hammer, The Biter, and Evil's Bane' based on that you might actually be able to guess why, if you do, you win... nothing because I can't actually hand out prizes :(**

 **see you next time :D**


	8. The Hammer, The Biter, and Evil's Bane

****AN: welcome back, I know I put these out quickly but I'm just in the mood to write and I have a bit of free time due to having three days off from work in a row which is nice but sadly as with all good things It must end and I go back to work tomorrow, ah well it pays the bills at least, now with out any further ado I hope you enjoy this chapter.****

 ** **Disclaimer: I only own My original characters, three belong to my good friend, Lord of the rings and all things middle earth belong to Tolkien, Star wars belongs to Lucas, and now Disney.****

 **(Chapter 7, The Hammer, The Biter, and Evil's Bane)**

* * *

After the group had separated from their group hug, Viridian inspected Xey's eyes and face, "I thought that it was impossible to heal your eyes?" he asked her.

Xey smiled, "Elrond is a very powerful healer, he's healed me of everything… They did to me." she said downcast.

Viridian seeing her distress wrapped an arm around her, "You know if you ever want to talk all of us are available."

Xey looked up and saw each of the group nod at her, she took a shaky breath, "I will tell you all tonight when we are going to bed." she told them.

Viridian nodded, "It's a deal." he told them, "onto great news, I found out Daniel and Vega are alive." he told them, Kes, Du, and Xey turned to him in surprise and full of hope.

"... They are?" Kes asked her voice full of emotion.

"The Vong we captured said that they had captured Vega, and… Tortured him," Viridian managed, much to the others horror and surprise, "But thanks to Gandalf I was able to find out that he escaped and now they are on a planet on the other side of the unknown regions, and they apparently are building up an army." he told them

"... Well that's pretty helpful," Jak said unsure of what to say as he had never met the two. "So who is the company you're travelling with?" he asked changing the subject.

Viridian turned to look back over the stairs where the company had gone up, "The Company of Thorin Oakenshield, Thorin is the leader of it and he's a king they are trying to reclaim their kingdom from a dragon that took it from them, and I decided to offer my services." Viridian explained.

Du clasped Viridian's shoulder, "If that is the case then I will join in as well."

Viridian looked at the others to see their agreement in this matter and he sagged with relief, "Thank you all so much."

"Why is he called Oakenshield?" Kes asked curiously.

Viridian smiled, "He earned that name because many years ago, he and the other Dwarven Clans were trying to reclaim an ancient Dwarven realm from the orcs, Moria, as well as avenge Thror, Thorin's grandfather who was killed by an Orc chieftain by the name of Azog, and well during the battle his shield was broken so he picked up an Oaken branch and used that as his shield, in fact he still has it."

"Did they succeed?" Jak asked.

Viridian nodded, "They won the battle but they didn't reclaim Moria, the other Houses feared something with in the depths and didn't want to go into the ancient halls."

"Viridian I believe you have gone Native." Kes stated amused.

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "So, I like the way they talk, it's very pleasing to the ear." he grinned at her.

Kes just shook her head in amusement.

"Shall we go and prepare for dinner?" Viridian asked.

"Follow me I can lead you to the bath house." Xey stated and lead the group through the city, If viridian thought the city was beautiful from a distance it was more so up close, the elves all looked at them as they walked through, smiling in greeting, before going back to what they were doing, as they walked through the city Kes looked at one of the towers and saw a fire being lit.

"Xey, what is that about?" Kes asked pointing at the fire in the tower.

The Echani girl looked at the object that caught her friend's attention, "It's a signal fire, Elrond is summoning help from anyone willing to answer, my best guess would be Lorien, Mithlond, and the Dunedain would answer perhaps even the elves of Mirkwood and the men of Rohan." she explained.

"What about The Dwarves?" Jak asked curiously.

Viridian winced, "The Elves and the Dwarves… Don't have the best of relationships."

Du frowned at the words. "What happened?" Du asked.

"The Elves apparently were in a position to help the Dwarves of the Lonely mountain repel the Dragon Smaug but they didn't, this embittered them, and Thorin had a hard time considering of even coming here. I had to practically beg him to come here, I was surprised that he even agreed to help defend the city." Viridian explained.

Xey nodded, "There is a lot more than that but to say the least there has been a lot of bad blood between the Elves and Dwarves since the time Thingol was King of the Wood Elves." she explained.

"You've been studying up on their history?" Ulra stated more than asked.

Xey nodded in affirmation, "I studied things from before the first age to the current day, after

Elrond restored my sight I kind of went on a reading frenzy." she said blushing sheepishly.

Viridian grinned, "Daniel would be jealous you got to study the history of this world before he did."

Xey chuckled at that, "A little bit yeah, I remember before the war he would often give us really mind bending paradoxes as a form of payback." she said an air of nostalgia washing over her.

"I remember that!" Viridian exclaimed with a laugh.

Kes and Du joined in as well much to the others confusion.

Kes sighed, "He hadn't done one of those in a long time."

Viridian somber as well, "Not since his master was killed."

"There's no point in hiding it anymore," Du stated.

"Hiding what?" Jak asked curiously.

"Daniel Valo was apprenticed to his Mother Naomi Valo." Jasmine answered hoarsely.

Jak actually stopped walking at that, "What?" he asked surprised.

Viridian sighed, "It is a long, complicated, and depressing story I'd rather not get into."

"She was raped and it lead to Daniel," Du simplified, causing VIridian to glare at him

"Really?" Viridian asked, "Did you really have to do say that?"

"I just stated a fact." The Zabrak said.

"Okay, but did you have to say it like that?" he asked again.

"... Fair enough, but there is no easy way to explain that you can't really sugar coat rape nor should you."

The Group could feel the anger within Jak building at that, "Was that Chaakar brought to

justice?" he asked them, his fist tightening in anger.

The Jedi looked away, "No he wasn't, the bastard stayed hidden and we couldn't find him, Daniel hates him the most however."

"Do you have a name?" he asked.

"He's a Dark Jedi by the name of Galies Zcum, but we call him Gall," Viridian explained.

Jak's shock increased exponentially at the name, "This Naomi was lucky to have survived... That thing." he said, catching himself from saying _'him'_ as he didn't view that creature as a human being anymore

"Her Master sensed her distress and managed to find her before he could… Do what did with his other unfortunate victims." Viridian said swallowing the bile down his throat.

Jak remembered that he and his best friend Rarok had tried to go after that thing, but all they managed to do was injure it and get injured in the process though they had managed to remove his right arm and leg as well as his left hand and foot.

"Look I don't want to talk about that subject anymore." Viridian pleaded.

"Of course." Jak agreed.

"Hey Virid," Kes called, "why is there a child in Thorin's Company?" she asked him.

Viridian rose an eyebrow at that, "What are you talking about?" he asked her.

"You know short almost as tall as one of the shortest Dwarves has a small blade and a walking stick." Kes described.

"Oh Bilbo, he's not a child he's a Halfling, or Hobbit, and our burglar." he grinned at them, "speaking of which, Xey, Jak would you mind teaching him how to defend himself?" he asked them.

"Of course." the two said simultaneously, Jak had some doubts about it though but he'd have to evaluate him for himself.

Xey came to a stop at a door to a building with marble walls and a tiled roof, "This is the bath house, Kes, Jasmine, and Ulra we'll have to leave the boys to this." she smiled and beckoned the girls to follow her.

Viridian turned to the boys and shrugged before opening and ducking into the door, there he saw the Dwarves and Bilbo all in baths enjoying themselves immensely, "Ah Viridian!" Kili exclaimed, "How did the reunion with your kin go?" he asked.

Viridian moved from the door, "Ask them yourselves." he told them just then Du, Janus, and Jak came in, "This is Du one of my best and most cherished friends." he said grabbing the Zabrak by the shoulder, the Company stared at him in surprise and studied him as they had never seen anything like him before, Viridian then gestured to Janus, "and this is Janus, so from now on we don't have to worry about you melting in the rain Nori." Viridian grinned at said dwarf who grumbled in annoyance, Viridian then pointed to Jak, "And this is Jak, my good friend." Jak nodded at them.

"Viridian has told us much about you all." Thorin said with a nod, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

For the entire hour the group all bathed and talked of their past adventures and got to know each other, after they were done bating the Elves had provided each of them simple tunics for the time at Dinner, Viridian and Thorin kept their swords both wanting to know the history of their swords, while Jak attached the blaster to his hip even without his armor, a Mandalorian was still dangerous.

The group showed up to the dining area on the balcony of the house they were the first ones there and so they waited for the others and their host, they didn't have to wait long as Gandalf, Ulra, Jasmine, Kes, Xey, and Elrond came in, they sat down and began to eat, and the minstrels sang and played their harps for them, during the course of the dining Thorin asked Elrond of the sword he found.

Elrond took the sword for a moment, "This is Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, the foul creatures call it the Biter, the Gondolin lord who wielded this slew many orcs, a truly famous blade." he told him as he handed it back to Thorin.

"I shall carry it with Honor." Thorin said with a nod.

"What of mine Lord Elrond?" Gandalf asked as he held up his sword.

"This is Glamdring, the Foe Hammer, this blade was forged for Turgon, the King of Gondolin, may it serve you well."

"Thank you."

"My Lord Elrond what of mine?" Viridian asked holding up his blade, Abruptly the Minstrels stopped and Elrond's eyes widened at the ancient weapon.

"... That is Ringel, the Sword of the Third King of the Noldor, Fingolfin, he challenged the First Dark lord to single combat and with that sword maimed him several times causing Morgoth to walk with a limp for the rest of his life." the Elf lord said overcoming his surprise.

The entirety of the company stared at the blade for a moment in awe, Viridian stared at the weapon in his hands in surprise, "Wow, no wonder I felt such power coming from it." he stated.

"These fine Swords have chosen each of you to be their wielders I hope you will treat them with the respect they deserve." Elrond stated, the trio nodded to show that they would.

After dinner Viridian went to the courtyard and studied Ringle, "It is truly a surprise that I found this, the Force must have had something to do with it."

"That's the only thing that makes sense to me." Xey said as she approached Viridian, "How are you feeling."

"I'm good, I know that ultimately a weapon is only as good as the warrior who wields it, but something about these Elven weapons is different, they almost feel alive." he tried to explain.

"Is that good or bad?" Xey asked him.

"I don't believe so it kind of reminds me of our lightsabers and crystals."

"I imagine that our ancestors were the same with their weapons before the invention of the Saber." she told him.

"I imagine so." Viridian shrugged and attached Ringel to his hip, just as he was about to make his way to the library to talk with elrond he remembered something, he instantly delved into his pocket and pulled out the envelope from the cave.

"What is that?" Xey asked curiously.

"It's a mystery, this seal is the exact same symbol of our order here check it out." he said holding it out to her, she looked at it and her eyebrows rose.

"How could it have gotten here?" she asked.

Viridian shrugged, "I don't know, I'm going to open it with everyone else present let's go meet them." with that the duo made their way to the library where the rest of the space Farers and

Thorin, Balin, Bilbo, Gandalf and Elrond were.

After some prodding from Gandalf, Thorin gave Elrond the map to Erebor, after a few minutes of studying the artifact, Elrond determined that the hidden messages in the map was written in moon letters, on a midsummer's eve of the crescent moon, meaning that they would have to wait for about three weeks before they could read it.

"I see." Thorin sighed.

"I'm confident that we will see that message Thorin Oakenshield we just need to be patient."

Elrond told him.

"You're that confident that we'll win this battle?" Jak asked.

"I have great faith in all of our abilities, and I believe that with the blessing of the Valar and Iluvatar on our side we shall prevail." Elrond answered honestly.

Jak had to admit faith like that was something that he could appreciate, "But how are you going to solve the Vong's flying machine problem?"

"I am familiar with several powerful spells and can use them to bring down their air support." Elrond answered.

"Perhaps." Viridian interjected, "we could remove them altogether."

"What are you suggesting?" Bilbo asked.

"A preemptive strike on their base of Operations, we can destroy their fighters and perhaps slow the enemy down long enough for reinforcements to arrive." Viridian explained.

"There's just one flaw with that plan," Elrond stated, "We have no idea where they are coming from."

"True… But I believe there's some people in this Valley who might." Viridian stated as he looked out into the wilderness of the Valley, "Who's up for a bit of hunting?" he asked them.

"Can we do that tomorrow?" Kes asked exhausted.

"No need I can have my warriors do it tonight." Elrond stated.

"Works for me." Viridian shrugged, "My lord, in the place where we found the elven blades I also found an envelope with the symbol of the Jedi Order on it do you have any idea how it could have got their?"

"I do not know." Elrond admitted puzzled.

Viridian took the Envelope and opened it, only to find another sealed envelope in side, he then opened that envelope, and found nine silver rings in it as well as a letter he poured the rings into his hand, took the letter and looked at it before holding it out to Gandalf and Elrond, "Can you read it please, I can't understand it?" he asked

Elrond nodded and took the letter, "I write this letter in the hopes that these rings will find you well Mariners of the Stars, I am Celebrimbor the Elven smith and one of the two to craft the rings of power, these nine magic rings are meant for you as weapons against the darkness both of this world and those beyond, I hope they serve you well."

Viridian stared at the rings in fascination before he noticed little markings on them he held one up and looked at it, Elrond came to his side and looked at it, "That one is meant for Jasmine." he told him, Viridian looked at the elf lord for a moment before looking over to the female Cathar and holding it up for her.

After a few seconds of thought she nodded, and Viridian threw it to her, she caught it and studied it for a moment before putting it on her ring finger.

Viridian gave the others their rings and put his on. "Woah." Viridian said.

"Are you alright?" Thorin asked.

"Uh… I feel exhilarated like I can go for days, no, weeks without rest." he stated, "I feel like there's an energy inside me that wants to come out and manifests itself in the world, I feel the air around me charged with electricity, and I feel like I'm running with a fire beneath my feet."

Viridian explained with a breathless chuckle.

"I feel the exact same way." Xey stated.

"As do I." Jak and Du said at the same time.

Viridian looked at Kes, Jasmine, and Ulra, "What do you feel?" he asked them

Kes seemed to be at a lost for words, "My mind feels like it's moving faster, like there is nothing I can't learn, Like there were some weights on my mind and now they are gone."

"I felt the same." Janus nodded

"... With me it feels as if I can feel all the life forms around me in perfect clarity, like I just woke up and heard the first heartbeat of the universe." Ulra said after a moment to gather her thoughts.

"The same with me." Jasmine nodded.

Elrond pondered this for a moment, "Hmn, what each of you has described is the way that the Magic now expresses itself through you, for those of you that feel they're full of energy it is the offensive expression of magic, the weapon, for those that felt the heartbeat, that is the shield and healing, and for you Kes and Janus, the scholar."

"What exactly does that mean?" VIridian asked.

"For you VIridian this ring could help you with your powerful abilities strengthening them beyond what you thought possible, For you Kes, your ring could allow you to learn things or decipher information faster than you could have ever done before, and for you Ulra perhaps your ring could augment your talents in the healing arts and save even more people from harm."

"But you're not sure?"

"Celebrimbor did not state what these rings could do but he forged them each for you." Elrond told them, "those inscriptions are your names in Quenya, the language of the Noldor."

"But how did he know we would be coming, from over three thousand years ago?" Xey asked

"We may never know the definitive answer to that." Elrond answered, "or perhaps we'll learn as we are meant to learn.".

Thorin snorted at that, "Why does it matter at all, you've got them now, you might as well put them to good use." he stated.

Jak nodded in agreement, "I agree though I will admit I am curious but, I won't lose any sleep about it."

Viridian shrugged, "Fair enough, so tonight you're going to send out some Elves to find us an orc scout or the like?" he asked changing the subject and to make sure their plans were laid out

"Yes." Elrond stated.

"Good, then I will look for any volunteers willing to help me on this mission based on the information this capture will provide." Viridian stated.

"That would be a wise idea." Elrond nodded, "but for now we should retire."

Thorin nodded and lead Balin and Bilbo back to their room, Xey then beckoned the Jedi and the Mandalorian to a private room where they would have their talk, they all looked at her waiting for her to open up with them.

Xey bowed her head and covered her eyes, "I'm sorry but some of the things I will be telling you are a bit… difficult for me and I am scared." she admitted her eyes still covered.

Viridian walked up to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it in reassurance, "It's okay we understand just take your time, would it help if we laid hands on you while you talked to let you know that we're here?" he asked her.

Xey nodded, and one by one they each put their hands on her upper back and shoulders, with Jak placing his on the crown of her head, and they all steeled themselves for her revelations of her time in captivity.

"Before you ask no they didn't force themselves on me, they attempted to but I fought them off and took away those monsters ability to have children." she told them, causing them all to sag with relief at that, and to nod in approval at that last bit, "But… they did other things, they would beat me and I would fight back once they realized that beating me into submission wouldn't work, they began to torture the people I was in captivity with and blaming it on me, a lot of what they did was psychological torture, they horrifically tortured this one person, he… I…" she started to break down, Viridian and the other force sensitives sent waves of reassurance to her, "His name was Jaran Saruss, he was a member of the Altisian Jedi… I… loved him." she admitted, "They found out about us somehow and they tortured us for weeks each of us forced to witness the others torment, they sterilized the both of us saying that 'since Jedi aren't allowed to have families might as well help you keep that rule', I was approaching my breaking point, just then the leader of the knights came in to see the final segment of our torment, and Jaran started to get under his skin, the final comment he made really set him off and… h-he killed him then poured that stuff in my eyes saying that he wanted the last thing I see was the horrific death the person I love go through." Xey released the floodgates.

Viridian pulled her in for a hug and she cried on his shoulder, he looked at the others to see their down trodden and looks of anger, he whispered something in her ear and it only made her cry harder, Viridian just soothed her by gently rubbing her back.

"I'm so sorry for your loss Xey." Du said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

The group waited patiently for the girl to calm down all the while they comforted her and loved on her to help her, till she finally cried herself to sleep, "I think we should all turn in for the night." Kes suggested, the others all nodded in agreement and Viridian proceeded to carry Xey to the bedroom that one of the elf servants lead the group to and they all turned in for the night.

On the cliffside Jaing saw the whole event, "So one of the Jedi is a cry baby." he said.

Keen snorted and laughed at that, "Can you tell what it was about, oh was it because they got their assess kicked by _'pathetic lifeforms'?_ " Keen sneered.

"I don't know why she was crying, nor do I really care." Jaing snapped at the other clone, this one unnerved Jaing for as long as he's known him Keen was more monster to him then he was soldier, _'then again that's what the empire tends to be full of, monsters.'_ Jaing thought to himself.

"Besides Keen if you think about it from their perspective we did kill their family." Jane pointed out.

Keen snorted, "The Jedi have no such concept."

"Oh really, and you do?" Jane asked turning to the hateful clone.

Keen turned to Jane, if looks could kill Jane would be in a body bag right about now, but the

Squad Captain met his gaze evenly, "The Jedi killed my brothers, captain, maybe if you lost a brother you would understand."

Jane's glare intensified, "You are beginning to test my patience Keen, I have lost brothers during the kriffing war, three of them in fact, and one of them died because he was fighting the

Republic, fighting for what he believed in, and died to the clone troopers, so let me get something through your thick metal head Keen, I have made my peace with that a long time ago and I don't hate the clone troopers for killing my brother and I certainly don't hate the clone who did it either if I did I wouldn't be working with him, so grow the kriff up and get over your kriffing hatred it's useless here."

Keen only glared at Jane as Jane walked away, Jaing watch as he came to sit next to him,

"Captain if you don't mind me asking which one of us killed your brother?" Jaing asked curiously.

Jane looked at the clone, "You did." he answered simply, "I come from a large family Jaing, I'm the oldest of twenty six, eight of us are blood related the rest my father adopted, Viridian is the fifth in the family, however the one you killed, was one of my adopted siblings, his name was Zayn, he joined the Separatist believing that the republic was corrupt, admittedly he was right, do I hate him no, he made his choice I don't begrudge him that and he was a hero in his own right, I was telling the truth though I don't hate you you were just doing your job he would have done the same."

Jaing swallowed a lump in his throat, "I remember him." Jaing admitted, "As he lied on the ground bleeding he asked me to return something to his family," Jaing reached into his pouch and pulled out a set of beads on a necklace, the beads were placed together in threes each a different color, the first ones red, the next green, the next blue, the next purple, and the final one clear."

"His crests," Jane said, "each of our family has one the colors tell a story of our lives."

"Really can you translate?" Jaing asked curiously.

"It's supposed to be shared only among our family Jaing." Jane told him.

"Ah I see, an interesting tradition." Jaing said as he handed him the necklace

"I like to think so." Jane agreed as he took them, "so what more can you tell me of the situation going on down there?"

Jaing looked through the Macro Binoculars, "From what I can see it looks like the Elves are preparing for a siege."

Jane turned to Jaing in surprise, "A siege how can you tell?" he asked.

"It's the only thing that makes sense, they lit the signal fire to summon help, they are mounting ballistas on the walls of the city and repurposing food carts for trebuchets." Jaing told him.

"Hmn if only we could listen in on what they were saying we'd be golden." Jane said frustrated.

"You know what happened the last time we tried that, our probes got washed away by a strange flood." one of the troopers stated.

"That seemed a bit too convenient." another trooper added.

"Enough of the chatter it's not going to get us anywhere, I'll contact the Commander see what he has to say." Jane stated, and got ready to do just that.

 **AN how was that was it good, bad, so so? what ever the case please leave a review tell me if I made any grammar errors or spelling stuff like that, My beta reader I hope covered it special thanks to Mandalore the Freedom.**

 **anyway have a good day, May the Force and Iluvatar be with you**


	9. Internal Struggles

****AN: hello everyone I'm back with two chapters in one day this one was pretty short so I thought I would give you two because I'm nice like that****

 ** **Disclaimer: I only own my oc's****

 **(Chapter 8, Internal Struggles)**

For Viridian sleep had not come to claim him, so he would stare at the ceiling, and send waves of comfort and reassurance to Xey whenever she whimpered, at some point he felt Ulra stir and sat up, "Couldn't sleep?" he asked the Miraluka.

The woman who lacked eyes shook her head, "I can't get what they put her through out of my mind." she stated.

Viridian nodded, "I can't either, they hurt her so much and took a lot from her, she didn't deserve that." he sighed as he tucked Xey's hair behind her ear, "I would like to go for a walk I need to sort my thoughts, can you watch her?" he asked her.

Ulra nodded, "Of course.", with that Viridian carefully stood up and walked out of the room to a balcony overlooking the valley, the pale light of the full moon and stars fully illuminating it.

Viridian felt all sorts of emotions bubbling up inside him, Anger and hatred being the primary one, the anger at what was done to Xey and all the others that the Knights had caused suffering towards all because they hated them for something a few people throughout history did, he hated the knights and people like them, he wanted to kill them rip them apart limb from limb because of their bantha shit, but something within him made him question this line of thought.

"Why?" he asked out loud, "Why do they hate us for something a few people did, why does this hatred cause them to cause such pain?" he asked.

"It is the path they chose," Gandalf stated as he came in and took a seat on the bench, "All things are a choice, whether to use the gift of life for good or ill, what you feel about something whether to hate or love, whether to condemn or spare, what you have for breakfast in the morning."

Viridian chuckled at that last one, and turned to face the grey wizard, "Gandalf… I don't know what to do." he told him.

The wizard rose an eyebrow at him, "No Viridian you know what you must do, but you don't want to do it." he told him gently.

Viridian bowed his head, "They tortured, and hurt my 'sister' Gandalf, they killed the man she loved, blinded her, and sterilized her all because they hate Force sensitives enough that their hatred made them bring this kind of suffering on people because they happen to share a trait to some of the worst figures in galactic history, or for supposed crimes my order committed to the galaxy, I can't forgive them for that!" Viridian nearly shouted, as tears leaked from his eyes.

"The desire for revenge is a powerful urge, very few can resist, a sad thing since it always leads to ruin for both people."

"I've heard that a million times Gandalf." Viridian moaned frustrated as he paced back and forth.

"Tell me Viridian what do you think of the orcs?" Gandalf asked, VIridian stopped walking and turned the Wizard an eyebrow raised.

"I think that they're a bunch of evil savages that plague the people of this world." Viridian stated

"AH," Gandalf nodded, "Do you hate them?" he asked him

"Yes." Viridian answered honestly.

Gandalf nodded, "Viridian allow me to explain something to you about the orcs, they never had a choice."

Viridian stopped short at that, "What?"

"The Orcs were once Elves captured by Morgoth, he tortured them, mutilated them did all sorts of abhorrent things to them until they became what we know them today, a terrifying and twisted form of life, the Valar pity them, and so do I."

Viridian swallowed at that, "... I'm so sorry." he said his voice thick with sadness and grief.

"I hate the actions they commit, but in the end I pity the poor tortured beings that they are."

Viridian bowed his head, "How does Iluvatar treat them?"

Gandalf sighed, "I don't know, not even Mandos knows, I can only guess, but I believe he has a place for them with him where their tortured souls can rest." he told him.

"I want to believe that too." Viridian agreed, "but these men who did those things to Xey have no such excuse."

Gandalf nodded, "You're right, with the children of Iluvatar they have free will to choose how they use their gift, but again to hate the person will only bring you misery, you hate the action, pity the man for the decisions he made Viridian, for it is not your place to judge them nor is it mine or any of the wise on this good earth or beyond."

Viridian began to tremble slightly, "Hatred, I've carried that with me for so long Gandalf, and tonight I saw what hatred did to my sister, I never want to subject anyone to that, ever in any measure."

"Viridian we all struggle with our inner darkness, and I am proud you are willing to try and overcome this issue I will guide you in this endeavor, but for now I think it best for you to sleep."

Viridian felt his fatigue fall on him like an avalanche in the mountains, "Yeah good idea, thank you Gandalf." he said and began to head back to his room.

"Your welcome Viridian, if you ever need help just ask me." Gandalf told him.

"I will." and with that, Viridian crawled back into bed and fell into a comfortable dreamless sleep.

Back on the cliff Jaing narrowed his eyes through the binoculars having read the lips of the wizard and Jedi, "Well, now I know why the girl was crying." he stated.

Jane raised an eyebrow, "Why?" he asked curiously.

"She was tortured, the man she loved killed, sterilized, and blinded." Jaing answered a small amount of pity leaking into his voice.

Jane winced at that, "I see… What else were you able to pick up?"

"Who ever this Gandalf is, that Jedi really respects him."

"Gandalf, as in the grey wizard?" Jane asked surprised.

"What can you tell me of this wizard?" Jaing asked Jane curiously.

"Only what I've picked up from certain conversations, not much I'm afraid, only that he's an old man and part of an order of five wizards, whose base of operations is in an ancient fortress that the Gondorians gave to them many years ago, called Isengard at the foot of the Misty Mountains where the Gap of Rohan is." Jane explained giving him a rough idea of them.

"Is one of these five called Mandos?" Jaing asked.

Jane racked his brain for a moment, "I don't believe so, from what I recall Mandos is supposed to be one of the fourteen gods of this world." he explained, "You'll have to forgive me I don't recall everything that Thranduil's people told me." he apologized.

"At least you're willing to study this planet's mythology." Jaing mumbled, "Perhaps I should start brushing up on it myself."

"You might enjoy it, they have an exciting tale whether you believe it to be true or not."

"Hmn, is there a reference to someone called Morgoth in their mythology?" Jaing asked curiously.

"As a matter of fact there is, there were once fifteen gods, but he became so arrogant and wanted to turn against the will of their creator, the father, and so became the first dark lord, he did all sorts of terrible things, he captured a group of elves and turned them into the orcs, it was a tragic and unfortunate tale." Jane explained.

Jaing swallowed a lump in his throat, he felt that the tale in a way reflected what happened to him and his brothers when the Republic was transformed into the Empire, that thought sent a shiver down his spine.

"Hey captain look at what I found!" the rookie of the squad exclaimed dragging in a live orc and throwing it into the middle of the camp the orc snarled at them but did nothing aggressive other than that.

Jane looked at the orc then the rookie, "Where did you find this?"

"He was lurking about I found him when I went to take a piss sir."

"I see, good work Dex." Jane nodded.

"Thank you sir." Dex saluted,

Jane grabbed the orc by the scruff of its neck, "Alright orc, tell me what are you doing in the elven valley?" he asked him his voice and demeanor intimidating the foul creature.

"Or you'll what?" the orc asked trying and failing to keep his fear out of his voice

Jane raised an eyebrow, "Janig… you want to make him talk?" Jane asked knowing the clone's high success rate at making prisoners talk.

Jaing stood up and began to stretch and crack his knuckles as he approached the orc, "Okay, Okay I'll talk!"

"Glad you can see it our way, now I'll ask again, What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" he said punctuating each word with force.

"The Master wants to destroy the elven city, he tasked our allies from beyond this world with this endeavor, I was sent to scout the elves defences and report back to the horde with what I found."

"Who's the master?" Jane asked confused, as far as he knew their last master was dead… unless.

"The dark lord will rise again and not even you shiny tarks will be able to stop him."

Jaing just snorted at that, "Not likely but you can believe that if you want, what should we do with him?"

"We could give him to the elves?" Dex suggested.

"Ha, why not let the pointy eared bastards get what's coming to them, they're helping the Jedi anyway they deserve their fate." Keen stated.

Jane just looked to the sky and groaned, "Dex bring him to the elves… and don't let the jedi see you."

"Aye sir."

"Niles go with him."

"Understood." one of the resting troopers said and began to drag the orc along with Dex down the cliff side and through the valley.

After a bit of walking and the orcs feeble attempts at getting away from the two imperial troopers, they came across one of the elven search parties, more like they found them, "State your business here, Storm men." the elven hunters ordered.

"We found this thing prowling around, our captain wanted to hand him over to you, he knows something about an impending attack on your city." Niles answered.

The elves looked among each other and nodded, "You have our thanks warrior, will you be helping us in this battle?" he asked curiously.

Niles looked among the elves for a moment but they didn't betray anything to him, "It's up to my captain, and he can only do what the big boss says, we'll wait and see." he told them.

"I see, we'll take this foul creature back to Imladris now, fare thee well warriors." with that the elves took the orc and dragged him back to the city.

Back at the cliff, "I really wanted to break out the boot." Jaing admitted.

"Next time." Jane agreed.

Deep in the darkness of the woods a dark figure watched the whole display with a shake of their head, "Tch why would one send a pathetic creature to do a ranger's job?" the figure asked her voice revealing that she was a woman.

"The Vong are biased for the orcs… For some reason." the other figure stated, the voice was male and somewhat venomus.

"The master put them in charge." the woman sighed, abruptly she felt her lungs stop intaking precious oxygen and she tried to breath futily.

"Don't you dare question the decisions of our lord! for he is wise and all powerful."

"...For... He is wise… and all powerful." she gasped out, the man finally released the spell on her and she gasped in the air.

"You would do well to remember that, **deznun,** for it is he that commanded me to spare you when I took you from the sons of Arnor." he sneered at her.

"Yes master." she said submissively, though deep down she dreamed of ending this man for all the things he did to her, "If I may ask, what did our lord say about the group you spied upon in Eridor that killed that orc war party?"

"He believed them to be nothing more than a bunch of traveling mercenaries and not worth our time, but when I told him of the cultist with the sword of green light he became intrigued, our vong friends have identified him as a Jed'dai and they are a force to be reckoned with, but since it is one he shouldn't be too hard to deal with." the man said confident in his skills and power.

The woman did not know what to feel at the moment. She knew of her master's skill and power and knew that they were nothing to scoff at, next to the Agandaur, her master was the most powerful black Numenorean in the north. But she felt something within her stir, a chance at freedom and this Jed'dai may be the key to that freedom.

 **AN: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter if any of you caught the War in the North reference well good job**

 **next chapter :D**


	10. Coming To Terms With Hatred

****AN: Hello everybody I hope you all enjoyed this double chapter special which coincidently comes the day after Memorial day I hope you all enjoyed your selves.****

 ** **Disclaimer: the only thing this author owns is his OC's****

 **(Chapter nine, Coming To Terms With Hatred)**

Viridian heard someone next to him groan waking him up, he looked over and saw Xey sound asleep on her bed he looked outside and saw that the sun had risen, and he decided to get up, his mind wandered back to the conversation with Gandalf last night How he said he wanted to let go of his hatred 'a task easier said than done I'm afraid.' he thought to himself, then he thought about what Gandalf had said, 'I hate the actions they do, pity the poor tortured souls that they are.'

"How do I do that?" Viridian asked himself as he looked at the sleeping form of Xey his thoughts burning at what the knights put her through before they cooled down, "Maybe… I should try to understand where they are coming from." he told himself, with that he smoothed out Xey's hair and left the room to the gardens, and delved into his thoughts.

Viridian's thoughts took him all throughout the history of the Jedi order and how people viewed them, he knew that quite a bit of the galaxy throughout history hated the order or at the least didn't bother about them then there were those that practically worshiped the Jedi… 'I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that.' he thought to himself.

"But why did they not like us, did we fail them?" he asked out loud, "... Oh." he realized something, the answer to his question lied in his question, "But how did we fail them?"

The more Viridian thought about it the more he began to understand, "I see." he sighed to himself and leaned against the post and the back of his head hit the post.

"What do you see?" Bilbo asked, causing Viridian to straiten up, "Sorry, I just was coming here to think when I heared you talking to your self." he appologised.

Viridian smiled, "Think nothing of it Bilbo, I was just thinking about my order and its policies and how it caused us to end up where we are today." he told him

"Which is?" Bilbo asked.

"Wiped out with most survivors trying to survive every damn day from one of the most powerful empires in galactic history hunting us down like animals." the young Jedi answered somewhat sardonically.

"... oh." Bilbo said awkwardly.

Viridian sighed, "I'm sorry Bilbo I just began to realise why it is like that and I wish it wasn't so."

Bilbo raised an eyebrow, "Can you try and explain it to me?"

Viridian turned to the halfling and nodded, "You see Bilbo somewhere down the line the Jedi chose to become subservient to the Republic Senate and well at the time it was understandable we had just come out of fighting a thousand year series of conflicts with our ancient enemy the Sith and the Republic wanted to disband the Army of Light, however the senate became more and more corrupt and we couldn't at best, and at worst wouldn't get out of that deal, and so we would do things for these greedy corporations and senators, like the pacification of the Kaleesh, like the battle of Galidraan though I still hold that Jango started that fight, so on and so on, it got to the point that people began to see us more as overpowered enforcers of a corrupt system, and in many ways they were right, and during the clone wars we still failed the people we were so busy fighting an inexhaustible enemy that we practically abandoned the people we were meant to protect, they had to give up some of the basic neccessities in life like food or clean water, it was basically hell and they kept blaming us… we were stuck between a rock and a hard place and couldn't get out, well not without pissing off the people even more."

Bilbo pursed his lips in thought, "I can't even imagine what it was like."

Viridian smiled at the hobbit, "Because Bilbo your people have achieved something that most people in the galaxy can only dream of happening… peace among yourselves and only having to defend yourselves once."

Bilbo became somber for a moment, "That's because the Dunedain keep our borders safe… often times without my people even knowing it."

"True but peace among yourselves is even more amazing, you see humans and other sentient life can't seem to get over their petty differences, and I know better then to underestimate you Bilbo, already you have shown that you can protect yourself I've seen you fight off those small wolves that attacked us our first few nights."

"Small wolves?!" Bilbo exclaimed, "those things were monstrous!"

"... Maybe to you…" Viridian amended.

"... Fair enough." Bilbo agreed.

Viridian sighed again, "Bilbo… I have asked Xey and Jak if they'd be willing to teach you more in how to defend yourself, now you don't have to if you don't want to."

Bilbo took a moment to think about it "... It would be foolish of me not to take this advice Viridian we are facing orcs, goblins, the vong, and even a dragon… I think learning how to defend myself would be a good idea."

Viridian nodded, "I'll tell Jak and Xey that you agreed, but I don't want you face this enemy if you don't have to, the best form of defence is to not be there."

"I understand." Bilbo nodded, with that Viridian placed a hand on the hobbits shoulder and squeezed it.

"You hobbits truly are remarkable people, just as Gandalf and Celebion told me."

"I'm happy I didn't disappoint."

"Viridian." Thorin called, catching the Jedi's attention, "Elrond wishes to see you he has information on where the enemy staging ground is." the exiled king told him.

"Thank you Thorin I'll be right there." 

Thorin nodded and waited for him, Viridian then turned back to Bilbo, "Remember what I said Bilbo we may yet live through this journey."

"I hope so, fare well Viridian."

"Until next time." With that Viridian turned and followed Thorin to the war room, where Gandalf, Elrond, and Glorfindel was, "Hello my lords."

"Welcome Viridian." Gandalf smiled

"Please tell me you know where I have to go?" he asked them.

"We do… but." Elrond sighed.

"It is apparently in the Redhorn pass a very perilous place indeed the enemy have chosen well." Glorfindel stated.

Viridian pursed his lips in thought, "... Something tells me that the Vong are a rather suicidal group of people." he said to himself considering what they were were telling him about said area, "what all can you tell me about this area?" he asked them.

"It is a pass through the mountains south of here it leads to the other side of the mountains towards Lorien, but the pass is perilous it's almost as if the mountain itself doesn't like us ants crawling all over him." Gandalf told him

"I can only imagine how the mountain feels with an orc camp on it." Viridian said

"Caradhras is one of the mountains of Moria and it is quite the ways from here." Glorfindel told him.

"Then I will need to move swiftly… there may be something We can do to get their quickly." Viridian said outloud.

"And that is?" Elrond asked curiously.

"Why my lord Elrond... we'll ride the wind." Viridian told him with a smile.

"I will trust you with this endeavor even if I don't understand what you mean."

"Oh you'll see what I mean when we depart for the pass."

"Very well then, there is one more thing, I want you and Celebion to come to a meeting with some associates of mine, to tell us about the Vong." Elrond told him.

"Of course… when and where."

"Sunset and I will bring you to the meeting place myself." Elrond told him.

"Understood." Viridian nodded, "if that is all then I will go find my volunteers." with that he turned about and walked out of the room.

Kes stood on the bridge overlooking the waterfall, her eyes closed as the roaring of the running water became like music to her ears and caused her to relax nearly causing her to fall into a trance, she felt a presence approach her, "Hey Viridian, how are you this fine day?" she asked him.

Viridian seemed to deflate, "I'm a little upset given what happened with Xey, and I had a conversation with Gandalf last night, he told me something that made me try and look at the knights point of view and why they hate force sensitives like they do… And I came to a very sad conclusion." he told her, "our order failed the galaxy Kes in more ways than one."

"... That doesn't excuse what those monsters did to Xey, or what the Empire did to our people." Kes responded after a moment.

"Of course not, I still want to bash those people over the head but I can't deny the failings of the Jedi."

"... Then we have a chance to correct those mistakes and hopefully the New Jedi Order will be able to do what ours couldn't."

"One can hope." Viridian agreed.

"Well whatever the case I hope we get to see the New Jedi Order." she admitted.

"I do aswell, but we would have to survive this fight first." Viridian stated, referring to the empire, "Something tells me any attempts to create a New Jedi Order will not be allowed by the Sith."

"True." Kes agreed, "so what did you want to see me for?"

"I need your help on the mission to take care of the Vong Fighters and to delay them from committing their assault against this place."

Kes nodded, "Count me in." she smiled.

"Do you remember our little operation into the capital city of Carthea?" Viridian asked her.

Kes's eyes widened, "How many parachutes do you need?"

"Just be safe and go make twelve I have no idea how many people are coming with us, other than you, Janus and I, and I want to have this be a small team." he told her.

"I'll get right on it."

"Thank you Kes." Viridian smiled.

"You're welcome." With that she left to go find the materials she needed to make their parachutes.

"I think Celebion's skill and knowledge of Caradhras -if he has any- would be very beneficial… that and I also need to apologize to him." Viridian sighed to himself, and made to find the Dunedain ranger.

Celebion had spent the day training and getting measured by the elven smith who was going to make him armor, a gift he greatly appreciated and one he knew he would have to use soon.

"Celebion?" Viridian asked as he approached the man as he stood upright to face the young Jedi, "A quick spar?" he asked him.

"It would be my Pleasure." the Ranger smiled and dipped into a combat stance, Viridian drew Ringil and did the same, the two began to circle one another.

"Celebion… I wish to apologize." Viridian stated as he parried a strike from the ranger.

"May I know of the offence that you committed against me so that I may forgive it?" the ranger asked confused.

"... Ever since I have been reunited with my kin, and after Xey told us the true depths of what she went through at the hands of the knights, I have began to look at my order as a whole… trying to understand where these people were coming from, and How we could impoove the Jedi as a whole because of it."

"Tis a wise endeavor, but I fail to see what it is I need to forgive you for Viridian." 

"I began thinking about it, and began to realise my Order didn't do the best of jobs when it came to the average citizen, I realized that we let ourselves become subservient to a corrupt government and we were more overpowered thugs for the higher echelons in power then we were servants of the people." Viridian explained, "and well that kind of happened with you, I never once asked you about your daughter throughout the month we had been traveling together, I never once asked you about the descriptions of the men that took her, If I am to help you Celebion then I should have asked you these things when I agreed to it, I am sorry for not doing so and relegating you to the back burner as it were." he told him sincerely.

Celebion stared at Viridian for a moment, "... There is nothing to forgive, Viridian Mallory, for we had been distracted by the trials we had faced together, I hold no ill will or blame against you… what would you like to know?"

"What is your Daughter's name?" Viridian asked.

"... her name is Niwen." the ranger spent the next hour telling Viridian about Niwen and her traits from what he remembered them as.

"Celebion you told me that she was taken at the age of ten and well I will have no idea what she looks like now, and I doubt you will as well."

"She looks like her mother with my eyes." he told her.

Viridian pursed his lips in thought, "Would you mind if I were to look into your memories to get a referance?" he asked him.

Celebion hesitated for a moment unsure about this before he finally nodded, "... If it will help us get her back then I will let you."

Viridian nodded, "You consent to me going into your mind?"

Celebion nodded again.

"Alright." with that Viridian delved into the rangers opened mind and viewed his memories he saw a young girl, he assumed was Niwen she had raven color hair and the sea blue eyes of Celebion, her face was cute of course he was looking at the ten year old version of her and so looked for the girls mother to get a more accurate idea of what the woman looked like now a days.

After searching for a few minutes Viridian had a rough idea of what the woman potentially looked like, "Celebion, I can't nor will I make any promises that we will get your girl back safely, though I do promise that I will do everything in my god given abilities to bring her back in the best shape possible."

"That is all I ask." Celebion said and pulled the young Jedi into a hug, "Thank you Viridian."

"Your welcome my friend, there is something though I need to ask of you… would you mind joining me on a mission of almost certain death to the enemy camp to destroy their flying machines?" he asked him.

Celebion raised an eyebrow, "How can it be any more dangerous than going to liberate a mountain with a great winged fire drake guarding it?"

Viridian could not deny that logic. "... So you'll come?"

"Just tell me when we're leaving and I will be ready." Celebion answered him.

"Good we'll be leaving tomorrow." Viridian told him with a nod.

"Understood."

"Oh one more thing do you know where the Redhorn Pass is?" he asked the ranger, much to said rangers displeasure.

Meanwhile Jak was walking through the elven city lost in his thoughts, "Jak are you okay?" Ulra shouted chasing after him navigating the walkways with no issue, when she caught up to him she stared at him through her blindfold, "Jak?"

"I am… Bic ni skana'din." Jak told her.

Ulra nodded, "I can see that Jak, and I believe I know the reason."

"I have never wanted to kill anyone save certain death watch members in the same way I want to kill those Demagolka!" Jak exclaimed, abruptly a thunderclap sounded, telling the duo that Janus was either practicing or letting off steam, he tended to do a lot of both when it wasn't dangerous like on a ship in the vacuum of space.

"I know what you mean… Xey she lost…" Ulra was unable to finish her thought, as she hugged Jak, to which the mandalorian returned.

"Riduur. She's strong and I can tell that you think that if it was me you wouldn't be able to say the same, don't think that beloved, also if something like that were to ever happen to me I want you to be happy."

"Hmm you always know what say cyar'ika to calm me in worrying times."

"Get a room you two and just tie the knot already." Viridian sighed in mock annoyance.

Ulra and Jak looked at each other, "Maybe we will." Jak answered.

"Just use protection." Viridian shot back with a grin.

"Is there something you want?" Jak deadpanned, while Ulra's ears took a brighter shade of red.

"I came here because I need your expertise at killing things." Viridian told Jak, "I am going to need your help in the operation to take out the Vong's flying superiority for this battle."

"When are we leaving and where?" Jak asked.

"Early tomorrow and we're going to the mountain of Caradhras, we doing a paratrooper entrance." Viridian explained.

Jak nodded, "Understood."

"I'll leave you two alone, have fun." he told them and walked away, as he got away from them he ran into an elf lady.

"Excuse me, I would like to join your quest." she told him.

"Any help is welcome… Are you the lady that fought alongside us when we came here yesterday?" he asked her.

"I am, I am Iminye, and you must be Viridian, the others have told me a lot about you."

"All good things I hope?" Viridian asked with a chuckle.

"All of them respect and love you to some extent." Iminye told him.

"Really? Even Jak… I was convinced he didn't like or hate me." Viridian, "well he and I always had differing opinions on things but we get along."

"And I can tell that you love each of them." Iminye told him.

Viridian faced her completely giving her his attention, "You are perceptive… I see them as my family and I would give my life for every single one of them." he told her.

Iminye studied him for a moment to see if he meant what he said, "I believe you, some people aren't as loyal as that."

Viridian sighed, "It was one of the things my father taught me." he told her.

Iminye raised an eyebrow, "I had talked with your fellows before we met up, and they told me that the Jedi weren't allowed contact with their families."

Viridian nodded, "that is true, but there are exceptions, For example, Master Vos, and one of the most famous Jedi of my time, the Howlrunner or Sharad Hett as he was known, were allowed to see their families in one way or another, with Vos he was allowed stay with his parents while being taught by his master Tholme, Hett's master would bring him to his family whenever they had the chance to go, I was similar and got to know my biological family, it was great I had two families, until the clones and Vader came in and killed most the Jedi." he stated with a swallow.

"You hate them don't you?" she asked him knowingly.

Viridian shivered, "Yes, I don't want to but I do, and I know I shouldn't most of the clones couldn't help it… I am trying to overcome that but it's hard."

"To overcome the desire of hatred and revenge is a difficult thing, it nearly destroyed me." she told him

Viridian looked away, "How did you overcome that?" he asked her.

"I had my teacher to help me, and in the end I forgave the man who hurt me." she told him, "and I spared him and he went on to do many great things in his lifetime, he defended a small village from an orc invasion and lost his life in the process. But the village was saved."

Viridian looked at her amazed, "Truly?"

"Yes," Iminye answered.

Viridian looked at his saber, "I have killed so many in battle… mostly droids, and mindless machines, I never understood why the Republic fought the war it did against the Confederacy, they wanted out of the government and by all accounts they had that right, they felt the Republic was failing them and they were right, granted they did a lot of messed up stuff but so did we… but still I did my duty, and it got us killed, and for what?" he asked, "for nothing." he answered quietly.

Iminye laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed in assurance, "Things may look grim now but you shouldn't give up, otherwise those people who are no longer with us will never be remembered for who they truly were."

Viridian sighed, "I know I just wish that things didn't have to be like this, I can understand why people hated my order but to cheer as they are killed when they don't even know who they were… it just boils my blood." he told her.

"As it should, but it is due to their ignorance not malice that they are like that, Forgive them for for they know not what they do." Iminye told them, "and teach them." she added.

Viridian pondered that for a moment, "... That's pretty sound advice, thank you Iminye."

"You're welcome."

"If you'll excuse me Iminye I have to go find at least a few more volunteers, but I would love to talk with you more."

"Of course, I shall see you, may the Valar guide your feet." she told him.

Viridian smiled, "May the force be with you." and left to go find Du seeing the Zabrak Jedi's physiology and fighting skills would be a boon to the mission.

Du was on the damn over looking the water fall, pulling himself up and down on a bar in the waterfall, "100, 101, 102."

"Du!" Viridian called down.

"103, Hey Viridian how can I help you? 104, 105." he called back while still doing his reps.

"Well I need your help on the mission to destroy the Vong fighters at their base of operations."

"Count me in, 109, 110."

"Great, see you later."

"See you around, 113."

Viridian spent the rest of the day training and reading books… at least with the assistance of those who could actually read the books since he was still illiterate to the language that said books were written in.

"Viridian!" Celebion called causing the young Jedi to look up from the text that the elf scribe was showing him, "Elrond sent me to fetch you he wants to meet with us."

"Alright," Viridian nodded and turned to the scribe, " **Thank you.** " he spoke Quenya in a heavy accent.

" **Keep practicing you will get used to it**." the scribe encouraged.

" **I will**." Viridian replied and left with Celebion who lead him to the study at the main house.

" **I see you are studying the language**." Celebion stated his skill in the language was considerable, there was only a slight accent.

"I am trying it's not an easy one to get a hold of, but it does sound beautiful to listen to." Viridian told the ranger.

"You will get no argument from me." Celebion agreed, "I will teach you more as we continue this journey."

"That would be grand." Viridian agreed.

After a few moment the duo came to the study where he and Gandalf were and the two led them to a meeting place apparantly the two were in the middle of an argument but Viridian and Celebion only caught the tail end of it, "my friend you are not the only guardian to stand watch over Middle Earth."

When the four came to the meeting area, at the other end stood perhaps the most beautiful woman, that Viridian had ever seen, she seemed to glow bright, and had a head of golden hair that went down her back, she wore a similar dress to the one he saw Xey wear yesterday,

"Mithrandir." she greeted, then proceed to speak in elvish, unfortunately Viridian couldn't understand what she was saying.

Gandalf in turn spoke back in the same language, after that she just smiled, "I was not aware that Elrond had called for you." he stated turning to the elf lord.

"He didn't," a new voice stated, a voice so oddly familiar to Viridian that it sent a chill up his spine and he turned to the source and stopped cold, "I did." Viridian saw the man, he was elderly he had a long beared that went down to his belly and had a staff with a focussing stone on it, long white hair and long boney fingers, the thing that really terified Viridian though was this mans uncanny resemblance to the late Count Dooku, in fact Viridian actually now doubted those reports, "So you must be the 'Jedi' I heard so much about." Viridian subtly reached for his saber and prepared for the fight -well slaughter- of his life should it come.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one.**

 **Untill next time**


	11. A Familiar yet New Face

****AN: Hello everybody I'm back an man what a week it has been I just celebrated by 21'st birthday and had a hell of a time, anyway enough about my life you are here to read this story I have made... most likely.****

 ** **Disclaimer, Lord of the rings belongs to Tolkien, Star Wars is owned by Lucas, well the Mouse now... damn it.****

 **Chapter 10 A Familiar yet New Face**

Viridian kept his eyes on the Dooku look alike, Gandalf having sensed the tension put his hand on the boys shoulder, Viridian look at the gray wizard through the corner of his eyes.

"Viridian what on Earth is the matter?" Gandalf asked him.

Viridian gave his full attention back to the other man, who was also detecting the problem and took his staff in both his hands in order to defend himself.

"Who are you?" Viridian asked him still tense for a fight a remarkably one sided fight in his opponent's favor if he turned out to be Dooku.

"I am Saruman the White Wizard, and I would like to know why you are preparing to do battle with me." Saruman said a small amount of Harshness leaking through his Voice.

Viridian relaxed slightly but didn't lower his guard, "You bear an uncanny resemblance to an old enemy of mine… he killed my teacher right in front of me." Viridian answered, everyone there felt a bit awkward.

"I see." the leader of the Istari said in understanding, "but rest assured my young friend I am not him."

'Maybe not, but you may end up doing what he did.' Viridian thought to himself, 'okay that may be a bit too premature at least get to know the guy first.'

"My lord Elrond I am concerned about the impending attack on the city perhaps we should cancel the attack on Dol Guldur for a while till the threat is dealt with." Saruman stated.

"That may not be necessary." Gandalf stated, "I have brought these gentlemen to explain the threat of our new enemy."

"And what would they be?" Saruman asked.

"They are an Extragalactic space faring species called the Yuuzhan Vong." Viridian stated.

"So they are not of this world." Saruman stated more than asked.

"No they aren't." Viridian said.

"Just as you are not of this world, How could you let this species attack our world?!" Saruman asked accusingly.

Viridian seemed taken aback, however before he could retort Gandalf interjected, "Saruman Viridian's people had never met the Vong he is perhaps one of the first of his kind to meet them, he had no knowledge of this world until fate brought him and his companions here no less than a month ago."

"Are you really so blind Gandalf?" Saruman asked, "he's part of the guardians they are supposed to be ready for any interstellar threat on our people."

"... What?" Viridian asked confused.

"Your people were made to keep the peace, and prepare for any conflict, the father did this many years ago and gave you the gifts necessary to keep Meddlers off of our planet and out of this galaxy, what have you been doing all this time?"

Viridian glared at the Saruman, "Cark you, I don't have to deal with this from you, yeah sure my order wasn't perfect, but they did their best, I'm so sorry that we couldn't be these Guardians that you want us to be! but that's not important now we have to deal with this threat and take the fight to them!"

Saruman glared at the young Man, while Viridian glared back, in the back of Viridian's ming though he knew that if a fight were to break out he would most definitely lose.

"Please my friends, calm down, Saruman we can't blame the Jedi for the actions the Vong have made on our world and you should not blame this young man for failing to meet your expectations, we are all fallible and prone to make mistakes there is no shame in that." Galadrial interjected knowingly.

Viridian deflated, "The Vong seem to be completely unaffected by my abilities, I can't sense them."

"Hmn they must be a weapon created to fight you then." Elrond theroised.

Viridian stopped short, he hadn't considered that possibility and if it is the case then it would make a lot of sense as to why they were not affected by most force abilities, 'but who could have pulled that off?' he thought to himself, "That is a possibility, but I'm not sure of anyone who could do that unless it was the Celestials." Viridian explained.

"Are they your word for the Ainur?" Galadriel asked.

"Yes they are." Viridian nodded, remembering that Gandalf had told him about the Ainur and that 14 of them that came to Arda became the Vala and the lesser ones became the Maia, Viridian had come to believe that the Ainur and the Celestials were one in the same.

"The evil ones under Morgoth could do this." Galadriel told him.

Viridian hummed in thought, "The Vong apparently believe Morgoth to be their god Yun-Yuuzhan, and want to set him free."

Saruman snorted, "That is unlikely, the Doors of Night are connected to the Valar themselves they can not be open unless they wish it, he will not get out of the timeless void any time soon."

"That begs the question, can he get out?" Viridian asked them.

There was a silence for a moment, "There is a prophecy that suggests that he might." Galadriel admitted

Viridian nodded, "I see."

"That is nothing but a fable, a legend among men." Saruman shot down.

"Real or not it is rallying the Vong against you and I can tell you this they don't care, they will not stop until we are under their heel." Viridian stated.

"I know this." Saruman snapped impatiently.

"That doesn't matter now, what matters is the defence of the city and taking away their advantage of their flying machines, Viridian has a plan to do just that." Celebion jumped in

"Well then let us hear it." Galadriel asked turning expectantly to the young Jedi.

Viridian nodded, "Alright so here's what I am thinking, since we have no air vehicles to get us to our destination quickly we have to improvise, Kes is making us a device called Parachutes it will allow us to ride the air currents to our destination, Janus has the gift to alter the wind among other things he will provide the lift for us to get into the air and the cover for us, we will land on Caradhras's neighbor, Zirakzigil and determine the best course of action from there." Viridian explained.

Galadriel nodded in approval of the plan, "You have the making of a great leader Viridian." she told him.

"I have my doubts about this plan, but it is the best we can do." Elrond stated.

"... How do you plan on dealing with the enemy's superior technological advancement?" Saruman ask after a moment of thought.

Viridian just leaned forward a bit, "Are you familiar with the idea that fire can undo stone?" he asked him.

Saruman raised an eyebrow, "Of course, do you have explosives?" he asked him.

Viridian stood up straight, "Jak has some, but our supply is finite, our ship would have more but it crashed on the other side of the mountains, fortunately I know someone who can build more."

"Who?" Saruman asked.

"... Thorin's company." Viridian answered.

"Thorin as in, Oakenshield, the son of Thrain?" Saruman asked, at Viridian's nod he continued, "what would he have to do with this?"

"He and a company of Dwarves have taken up residence in my home, he was the one who warned me of the impending attack and has agreed to help defend it." Elrond answered.

"... That's a bit unusual why were the Dwarves traveling this way?" Saruman asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I fail to see how that is relevant to this current situation." Viridian stated evading the subject.

"I fully intend to ask them when the battle is over and the enemy is repulsed, I am curious myself." Elrond interjected.

"Very well then, is there any more we should discuss?" Gandalf asked.

"I do not believe so, only that my warriors will be here in 10 days." Galadriel told Elrond sadly, causing Elrond to nod in understanding.

"Just get here safely as you can." he bade her.

Viridian turned to Celebion and nodded at him, "There you are." Jasmine started coming through the arch way, Viridian turned to face the Cathar, "I came here to voluntee… DOOKU!" she screamed her lightsaber flying to her hand and she leapt at the Wizard.

"Jasmine wait!" Viridian called out in vain and covered his eyes in embarrassment, a second later he heard a thud followed by an 'oof', "That isn't the Count." he finished lamely.

Saruman had the Cathar pinned under his staff and in his other hand he held the saber of Jasmine in his off hand inspecting it curiously, "An interesting weapon." he commented.

"Glad you approve." Jasmine snarled.

"What did my counterpart do to you all to make you hate me?" Saruman asked exasperated.

"... Try killing many of our brothers and sisters." Viridian answered as he approached, Saruman backed off and Viridian helped Jasmine to her feet, "Started a war that turned out to be a farce, and subsequently lead to the deaths of almost the entire Jedi order, does that answer your question?" Viridian asked sardonically.

"Ah." Saruman said in understanding, "I see, well I don't like you either." he stated and tossed the weapon back to Jasmine

"Works for me." Viridian said and the two Jedi left the meeting area.

Viridian then turned to Jasmine, "So you wish to join the mission?"

Jasmine nodded in affirmation, "Yes, this mission will require a great deal of stealth, that is my speciality."

"True, but we can't all go what if we fail and we can't retreat? It will be up to you to help the defence of this city and if you get off the planet fight the empire." Viridian argued.

"Maybe we would know the enemies full capabilities if someone didn't keep killing them so quickly." Jasmine stated with a mock glare.

"And potentially die, yeah no thanks as far as I'm concerned if I'm alive and they are dead I'm all good." he stated, before he realised what he said and how casual it was, "Wow… I really have changed a lot since the start of the war."

"We all have." Jasmine sighed.

"I knew killing came with the territory of being a Jedi, but now that I have done that… I feel so numb to the idea now." Viridian admitted.

"I know what you mean."

Viridian looked to the sunset and sighed, "Well it is what it is." he said in acceptance, "it's sad but it is what it is."

Viridian went to talk with the dwarves and asked them to build as many explosives as they could in time for the battle, the Dwarves agreed and set about to begin that.

Viridian and the others went to bed and woke up in the morning dressed in heavy clothes to keep themselves warm and went to the courtyard where, Thorin, Elrond, Gandalf and Glorfindel were to see them off, Janus was helping Iminye with her harness, "You put it on like this and clip it here and here." he told her.

"Thank you your highness." she said gratefully causing the young man to blush.

"You don't have to call me that." he told her, "In fact I'd prefer if nobody did."

Viridian raised an eyebrow at Janus, "Highness?" he asked.

"Oh right you weren't there, uh it turns out Janus is the crown prince of Carthea." Kes told him.

Viridian looked at Janus, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Cool." Viridian said with a shrug, Janus sagged with relief that Viridian didn't make such a big deal about it.

"I'm pretty sure he would be king now." Du mentioned.

"Not according to my customs I have to be coronated first and that can't happen until…" Janus trailed off and blushed.

"Until?" Thorin asked Curiously.

Viridian grinned, "He produces an heir so they don't make the stupid decision of the last royal line who never bothered with looking for a wife and making children." he explained.

"... You really dug into our history?" Janus asked surprised and embarrassed.

"Its nothing to be embarrassed about it is a natural part of life, to find a mate and reproduce." Iminye stated.

"Can we please not talk about this anymore?" Janus begged his face beat read.

"For now yes, I'm still going to torment you with this though if we get through this." Kes stated with a grin.

"You do realise I am quite literally the only way for us to get out of the danger zone right?" Janus stated to her.

"Your point?"

"Lets just say, oh I don't know you might be left behind." Janus said in jest.

"... Point taken." Kes relented though she grinned to show she knew he was joking.

Viridian strapped himself in and turned to the others asking if they were ready.

"Ready." they all said in unison.

Elrond stepped forward, "May the Valar and Iluvatar guide you safely home."

Viridian nodded in gratitude, and turned to Janus, "Janus… take us up." he ordered.

Janus took a moment to gather the necessary energies before a big gust of wind sprang up around the team and the parachutes they were attached to began to pick up the wind it didn't take long as they were lifted into the air and high into the sky upon reaching the desired altitude Janus created a cloud around them and began directing them into their desired direction.

Meanwhile on the ground, "They're leaving now." Jaing reported.

Jane nodded, "Good, Jaing I want you, to take Keen, Niles, and Alaya to the Mountain, keep out of sight and observe the enemy, get any recordings if you can." he ordered

"Understood." Jaing stated, "Keen, Niles, Alaya mount up!" he called out and the four troopers got on their speeders and sped off towards Caradhras.

Deeper in the woods, "They are heading to the staging ground, what should we do?" the young hooded woman asked.

"I will head back there myself, you stay here." the evil numenorean stated and left the woman to her own devices.

The young woman sighed in relief at being alone, and delved into her thoughts, the Dunedain ranger she had seen going into Rivendell, and now flying out of it seemed familiar to her, she knew she came from the tribes of the Dunedain, and thought that perhaps she knew him from their, "But who are you?" she asked out loud, just thinking about it brought her to tears, oh how she hated that warlock for doing the things he did to her, the man was important to her in someway, and that monster suppressed the memories of her earlier life, and she couldn't get them back.

 **AN: for those of you wondering my Explanation of the Vong and their unique lack of relationship with the force, it was an idea that came to me from another story that involved Earth in Star wars but instead of making them completely immune he had it so that they were like the Yinchori completely immune to mental force abilities... that is unless you're Plagues and experiment on a subject for several years if not decades... I wonder if he could find a way around the Vong's traits, any way the story is called Earth in Star wars and it is on you tube by a youtuber by the name of Boofire 191 he's interesting however if you're a fan of the Jedi you may have a few problems with him but hey he's alright, I did this mostly because it makes the most sense to me, I have a love hate thing with the Vong, I loved the threat they presented and I like to study cultures so theirs interested me, I absolutely loathed their stupid relationship to the force, but I swallowed that pill and kept on going and now that I've made this conclusion it makes more sense to me and that's how I explain it to myself, you don't have to but hey everyone has an opinion, also keep in mind Saruman may not be right in his deduction that the Jedi were these Guardians that he spoke of, but they certainly inherited the mantle of that.**

 **anyway I hope you all enjoyed and have a swell day and many more to come**


	12. The Mithril Mountains

****AN: hello everyone I'm back with another chapter, one I hope you all enjoy.****

 ** **Disclaimer, I only own my OC's, Middle earth and all its stories are owned by J.R.R Tolkien, and Star wars is owned by Lucas, well Disney now... anyway on with the chapter****

 **Chapter 11 (The Mithril Mountains.)**

After several hours the group had finally reached their target, as soon as they landed Janus took a seat at one of the large stones on top of the mountain, "Man that was exhausting." he said out loud he sounded out of breath.

Viridian nodded and patted him on his shoulder, "Good work buddy, thanks for getting us here."

"No problem just give me a couple of minutes." Janus requested.

"Of course you rest up."

"Hey Check this out there is a structure up here." Kes called out, Iminye looked up along with everyone else.

"That is Durin's Tower, it is perhaps the greatest piece of architecture the Dwarves had ever built, the entire thing goes into the mountain all the way to the bottom of the dwarven halls of Moria." Iminye answered.

"The greatest of the Dwarven realms." Viridian stated, "Why did Durin build his kingdom here exactly?" he asked the elf.

"These mountains are rich in resources and perhaps the most precious resource available in this world." Iminye answered.

"And that is?" Jak asked curiously.

Iminye turned to the Mandalorian, "Mithril, it is incredibly light, malleable as copper, but incredibly strong it is used by some to make arms and armor, it is said that a coat of mithril mail is as strong as the toughest of dragon scales, and I have seen it save the life of some great warriors, one such man, who wore a mithril shirt had a uruk captain throw a spear at him, he got thrown off his feet but other then that he was fine though he was bruised and in pain from the blow."

"Sound pretty useful." Kes agreed, "perhaps we can help the Dwarves reclaim it as well." she offered.

Viridian shrugged, "I'm sure Thorin would be delighted to hear that, all we'd have to do is figure out what Durin's Bane is and how to kill it." he stated.

Iminye shivered, "A demon of shadow wreathed in flame, a foe like that is beyond any of us." she told them.

Viridian turned to Iminye, "You know what it is?"

Iminye's eyes hardened, "It is a Balrog of Morgoth, a demon of the ancient world."

"The thing that Glorfindel fought and killed, and died in the process?" Jak asked, remembering the story that the gold elf told them.

"These things have a nasty habit of taking their opponent with them into death." Iminye told them, "and I don't believe we could do much to it anyway."

Viridian looked at the dwarven tower, "We're not going down there today, Iminye, but there is always a way to kill something."

"True, but I don't want to provoke this demon's wrath till we have a sure plan to kill it." she stated.

"Fair enough." Viridian agreed, "Jak can you look down into the pass and see what we are dealing with please?" he asked politely.

Jak nodded, activated his range finder and began to scout the area, he saw the snow covered mountain with snow blowing about in the wind, his helmets on board computer compensated for the snow blind, and he saw it, an encampment in the clearing, populated by Orcs, Wargs, Trolls and Vong. "Found them." Jak called out.

Viridian turned to Jak, "Do you see their fighters?"

Jak scanned for a bit, "Hmn there not in the open… ah they are clever, there is a large cave opening I'm guessing they are using it as a hangar." he told them.

Viridian thought about it for a moment, "Then all we need to do is cause the cave to collapse." he said snapping his fingers, he then turned to Janus, "Can you make it happen?" he asked him.

Janus visibly sagged, "Now?"

"Viridian think about it for a moment, you are asking him to bring down the mountain we have no idea what that will do the the area around here." Du pointed out.

"I said the cave not the carking mountain, I'm not that stupid… you know what though, you should rest we'll figure out another way to bring it down, how many bombs do you have Jak?" he asked.

"Five, two should be enough to bring the cave down though." Jak answered.

Viridian nodded, "Alright then, Iminye, Celebion, Janus you stay here and guard our escape route, we'll take care of the operation." with that Viridian, Du, Kes and Jak jumped into the pass, much to Celebion and Iminye's horror.

"They'll be fine, it takes an exceptional height to kill a Jedi." Janus said with a smile, "and they can catch Jak before he becomes an addition to the mountain." he added "if he doesn't catch himself that is."

The three Jedi and Mandalorian landed in the small valley leading up to the clearing, Jak taking point lead the group to the opening into the Valley that the Enemy had set up camp in, Jak scanned the area for a moment, "Well this is going to be tough we're not going to be getting in unnoticed."

Viridian pursed his lips before an idea struck him, "Kes, Du help me start an avalanche." he said, and reached out with the force to a large buildup of snow, Kes and Du followed his example and the Snow began to slide into the valley.

"Nice work." Jak said with a nod.

The orcs all screamed and scattered at the mass of snow, "Go now!" Viridian ordered and with that the group ran into the Cave as fast as they could, the Jedi and Mandalorian got into the cave just before the snow covered the entrance, "Well that's one way to do it, now lets blow this place, Du can you determine the best place to place the bombs to bring this cave down?" he asked.

Du delved into the force and scanned the cave roof, "Okay, the first point is right here." he said pointing at the ceiling about 12 meters to their right, he held out his hand for the bomb, Jak handed it to him and threw it at the spot he designated.

"Great and the other?" Kes asked.

Du groaned, "Its at the other end of the cave."

"Kriff." Viridian sighed, "Alright then… we may have to fight our way through." Viridian stated and they began to walk along the cave wall, the orcs didn't seem to notice the group but they knew that could change soon.

Viridian placed his hand on the wall and felt some kind of growth on the wall, he stopped and looked at it and saw a strange crystal like object, it seemed to be growing on a vine and it glowed softly, fascinated he picked it up and put it in his pack and continue on ward wondering if he could turn it into a saber crystal.

"Get that snow out of the way!" they heard a scratchy voice shouted.

"Yes your majesty." the goblins shouted fearfully.

"Shai! Why did you set up the camp here!" the Goblin king shouted, Viridian could sense the source in the middle of the cave, he appeared to be riding a large arachnid creature.

"You would do well to call me by my actual name, Gorkil." this Shai responded angrily, Viridian couldn't actually sense this voice's source, the young jedi had a good idea on who this Shai was then.

"My apologies, Zimur Shai, it's just that this is the third time this has happen." Gorkil said significantly calmer.

"I can understand your frustration your majesty, but I promise, it will be worth it in the end."

"The elven city of Rivendell as our own, yesss." Gorkil hissed happily.

Viridian groaned, and stopped short upon sensing something deep in the cave, "damn it." he cursed to himself

"What is it?" Kes asked having heard him.

"I see some human slaves." Viridian sighed.

Jak clenched his fist together at that, "We got to get them out."

"I agree, but how?" Viridian asked, Du breathed out.

"Well then it's all or nothing." and took off sprinting.

Viridian resisted the urge to shout after him, "What the hell is he doing?"

Du tackled the Vong that the goblin king was talking to and carried him to the cave entrance, blasting away the snow and debris and throwing the warrior into the clearing, Du then leapt into the air and landed on the other side of the Vong, said Vong was greatly surprised by that to say the least and scrambled to his feet, the orcs, goblins and Vong came out and prepared to charge the Zabrak, before The Vong Du tackled held up his hand and stopped them.

Zimur Shai studied Du for a moment, "... I could have sworn the warlock said the Jed'dai was human." he said his basic was reasonable the accent still easy to detect as was the growl.

"There are several of us on Arda, Vong that human is just one of them." Du said.

Zimur began to pace a bit, "There can't be very many of you, Your kind have been nearly wiped out two years ago, I'd say no more than 10 of you are here."

"I will neither confirm nor deny." Du answered.

"Zimur, let's send the rabble at him, separate the cream from the crop." Gorkil smile sadisticly.

"A little bit of entertainment huh? Why not, send in your route." Zimur allowed.

"GOBLINS! SWARM OVER HIM!" Gorkil screamed holding up a scepter with a human skull on it.

Du activated his bronze lightsaber and held it at the ready, "Bring it you filthy wretches." the Zabrak Jedi taunted.

The goblins let out hoots, war cries, and charged the young Jedi, as a river against a rock.

Jak smirked, "He's bought us the time we need, let's go."

Viridian nodded, "He better live through this, I don't want to bury another friend." he stated as Kes, Jak, and he ran to the back of the cave.

"Slaves what are you doing out?" one of the goblin guards asked pointing a spear at them, Jak grabbed the shaft of the weapon and crushed the goblin's throat with his crush gauntlets, Viridian reached out with his hand and clenched slightly, causing the other goblin to claw at his throat, before he removed his head from his body effectively killing the guards with no noise.

Kes then took the key off the guard's corpse and opened the door to the prison, inside she saw all sorts of people of all ages and races, ranging from dwarves to humans, "It's okay now we're here to help." she assured them.

A young man approached her he had dirty blonde hair and looked to be nineteen, "Thank you my lady."

"Thank ye lass." a dwarf said.

"Thank you so much." a woman said, one by one they all thanked her.

"It's almost like we did nothing." Viridian deadpanned.

"Can any of you fight?" Jak asked holding up a crude goblin spear, the young man nodded, Jak threw the spear to him. "What's your name boy?"

"... I am Wiglaf, of the sons of Eorl." Wiglaf answered, his blue eyes alight with passion and zeal, despite the frail shape his body was in his spirit remained strong.

Jak simply stared at him, "... Okay anyone else."

"I'll fight by you laddie… but it'd be far easier with a weapon, as much as I would like to bash these vile vermin in with my fists." the Dwarf said beating his chest once.

Viridian pulled his blaster and handed it to the dwarf, "Point this end in the direction you want to shoot, then pull the trigger."

"A hand held crossbow ingenious, the names Grate!" Grate said, he had red hair that was beginning to turn white, he appeared to have taken his captivity in stride but considering what Viridian knew of the dwarves that was no surprise

"Viridian a pleasure to meet you Grate." Viridian introduced himself, "we should make our way out, place the last bomb then rendezvous with the others and get back to Rivendell."

"Rivendell I won't be going near that place!" Grate protested angrilly, his grey eyes hardening.

"Even if I were to tell you that the army staying here was going to be attacking the city within the week?" Viridian asked the Dwarf, much to the recently freed slaves surprise.

"Well Why didn't you say so if their is a battle to be fought then take me there!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Wow if you want a Dwarf to do something you just treat them to battle like you would a mandalorian." Viridian mused out loud.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jak asked.

"It can mean whatever you want it to mean, you wish to take it as insult go ahead." Viridian said and threw the bomb at the designated area, "Let's get out of here."

Meanwhile, Du was facing what seemed like an entire army of goblins, "Is that your best?" Du called out as he beheaded another goblin, the flow seemed to stop and a bunch of Archers decided that they were going to use the zabrak as target practice, "Well then." Du grinned at the archers wanting to turn him into a pincushion, he then stood straight and out stretched his arms exposing himself, "Hit me with your best shot." what the goblins failed to notice was the shimmering light that appeared around the Zabrak considering that there was a blizzard going on though that was a rather easy thing to miss he supposed, the arrows bounced off the force barrier and his arms went to his side, the Goblins all backed off in terror.

"HE'S A VALA RUN!" they all scrambled or attempted to.

"Get back here scum, and kill this thing!" the Goblin king screamed.

"I AM A JEDI!" Du shouted as he leapt at the goblins each leap he performed killed at least half a dozen goblins as he beheaded each of them.

"MORE BRIGHT BLADES RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" the Goblins further scattered, Gorkil looked absolutely infuriated, and turned to his body guards.

"Kill the she thing." he snarled pointing at the girl, the massive half troll nodded and began charging Kes.

Kes was busy slaying goblins left, right and center and providing a route for the freed people to get out, the force screamed a warning at her and she looked up to see a large orc like creature barrelling its way to her, the thing took its spear like a javelin and with all it could muster threw it at the young jedi, she expertly dodged the spear only to find a dagger imbedded in her abdomen, she looked up and saw that same creature smiling down at her sadisticly, before he twisted the blade, she gasped in pain, and with great effort took her lightsaber and imbedded it in the creature's… nether regions, the response was quite predictable.

Viridian turned to the source of the girlish scream and saw a massive orc clutching its now vaporised accessory, and Kes having fallen over with a dagger in her abdomen, "KES!" he screamed and ran to her however before he reached her the orc violently ripped out the knife cuasing afountain of blood to gush out of Kes's body, Viridian leapt and stabbed the orc in the head with his saber ending its life, Du came to him and held off any goblins trying to make their way to them, "Kes are you alright?" he asked fearfully his voice slightly shuddering as he applied pressure to the wound.

"... Vir...rid," she gasped, she looked incredibly pale.

"Damn it!" Viridian shouted, and turned to the center where he saw Zimur looking at them an almost longing look on his face, "YOU WANT A FIGHT YOU WILL GET ONE!" Viridian bellowed at him.

Zimur smiled, "STOP!" he bellowed at the goblins, who stopped moving about, the freed slaves , Jak, and the Jedi all watched with bated silence with what was to come next, "This is my order and mine alone, these warriors are to not be harmed any more today, they are allowed to leave, with my blessing, so that the next time we meet we'll have a proper fight and see who Yun'Yuuzhan favors, Jed'dai." he spoke loud and clear, much to Gorkil's ire.

"Zimur…" Gorkil began.

"Do we have a deal?" Zimur asked interrupting the goblin king.

Viridian glared at the warrior and nodded, "Yes we have a deal."

"The dagger was poisoned you will need to get her proper medicine in the next few days." Zimur stated with a nod, "now go." he commanded.

The group didn't have to be told twice and they made their way out of the mithril mountains, when they got a safe distance, Jak pressed the detonator and the group all heard the explosion echo throughout the valley.

Back at the orc camp, Zimur dug his way out of the snow a feral look on his face, "Run Jed'dai you are only prolonging the inevitable."

 **AN: well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter special thanks to my beta reader, Mandalore the Freedom**

 **for those of you that don't know Gorkil is a character from the RTS lord of the rings game The Battle for Middle Earth 2 and its expansion The Rise of The Witch King a great RTS game its on par with Star Wars Empire at War and its Expansion, Forces of Corruption I can't recommend those games enough.**

 **anyway Have a good day and I will see you next time**


	13. The Warlock

****AN: hello everyone another chapter within a day... I find myself extremely motivated to write this story I suppose.****

 ** **Disclaimer: Middle earth belongs to Tolkien, Star wars belongs to George Lucas.****

 **Chapter twelve, (The Warlock)**

Iminye, Janus and Celebion got the idea that they wouldn't be returning the way they had come and made to rendezvous with the others, it took them a few minutes to get down the mountain as Janus only had to jump off and catch them as they fell.

The trio ran to a clearing in the woods at the entrance to the pass, to find the group of civilians all holding improvised weapons of some kind, "Viridian!?" Janus called.

"Over here!" Viridian called out, his voice was hoarse, the trio ran to the source of his voice, and saw Viridian trying to do his best tending to Kes's wound, Du was knelt in prayer while Jak kept watch, but Janus could tell that he was deeply concerned for the girl as much as they were, Viridian had tears welled up in his eyes but a determined look on his face.

"What happened?!" Janus exclaimed.

"An Orc stabbed her with a poisoned blade, twisted it and ripped it out, I need help!" Viridian shouted.

Celebion nodded, "Does anyone here know the athelas plant?!" he asked out into the group.

"Athelas?" some one asked.

"Kingsfoil?" Iminye tried.

"Kingsfoil aye, it's a weed."

"It has medicinal purposes it may help to slow the poison, come on!" Celebion exclaimed and lead a group of volunteers into the wilderness, while Iminye knelt next to Viridian.

"She is strong Viridian, she'll pull through." she assured him.

Viridian stared at the girl lying on the ground, her amethyst eyes staring into the sky a blank look on her face, her blond hair matted down with sweat, and breathing shallowly, before he turned to Iminye tears leaking from his eyes, "Can you promise that with any certainty?" he asked her.

Iminye did the only thing she could there and pulled the young man into a consoling hug, "If we can get her back to Imladris then yes." she told him

Viridian let out a shuddering breath and struggled not to cry, he barely succeeded, "I have lost so much, I don't want to lose her, or any of them." he admitted.

"Of course you don't, but it is inevitable… unless you're an elf, and even then we lose the people we love."

"I know, but I would rather we all lived to be venerable old people exchanging stories, perhapes with our grand children if such a thing ever happens." VIridian added, Jak having heard that turned to him in surprise.

"I didn't realise that you of all people wanted a family." Jak stated.

Viridian looked away in embarrassment, "I stopped caring about that particular rule a long time ago, that and well I already had contact with my biological family, I suppose that it was inevitable, I'm just waiting for the right time." he explained, "and the right person." he added.

"Why not Kes?" Iminye asked, Kes let out a noise akin to a laugh, but it came out more like a cough.

"I don't... love... Vi..ridia..n lik...e that." she rasped out.

"And I don't love Kes like that." Viridian admitted, "though the thought had crossed my mind."

"For how long?" Kes asked before coughing again.

"Don't speak, conserve your strength." Iminye told Kes gently, Kes nodded but looked up at Viridian expententy.

Viridian pursed his lips, "When we were thirteen during the campaign to retake Carida." he explained.

"That's why you avoided her during the campaign." Du said in realization and turned to the conversation.

"... Yeah, now you know." Viridian sighed, "That battle was the worst I had ever been in, I couldn't afford the distraction."

"Sounds like a hard battle." Iminye commented.

"It was, the planet was a very prominent training world for republic soldiers back in the day, its gravitational pull was twice the standard with the hope to make the soldiers who trained their stronger, faster, and last longer, the Separatist fortified that world so much… it was not easy to retake, they made us pay for it severely." Du explained.

"Wow." Grate said impressed, "and ye survived that?"

Viridian stared at the Dwarf for a moment, "Yes." Viridian answered simply, "we survived that… somehow."

"Then the Lass will pull through, Laddie don't give into despair." Grate urged.

Viridian closed his eyes and breathed out, "I won't." he stated simply, just then Celeborn came back with his volunteers holding a bundle of plants.

"Someone mash up these and put it watter." Celebion ordered and took a bit of the plant and chewed it in his mouth, "My apologies my lady this may sting." he warned and put the chewed plant in her wound.

"AHHHH!" Kes screamed and arched her back, Viridian and Janus held her down when it was done color began to come back into her face, "ow.. that... hurt."

"I can see that, I had to move quickly, the other treatments aren't going to be as bad." Celebion assured her and patted her on the shoulder.

Kes nodded, "Thank... y-you." she strained out, and made a half smile through the pained expression on her face.

Celebion smiled, "You're most welcome."

Wiglaf came up to Jak, "We have the stretcher ready."

"Good." Jak nodded.

Viridian nodded gratefully, "Thank you Wiglaf," with that he placed a reassuring hand on Kes's shoulder and stood up, "May I have all of your attention!" he called out into the recently freed people, which numbered at about three dozen, "I know that many of you probably have homes that you want to get back to, and I can sympathise with that, if there are any of you that wish to leave and head back to your lands, you are more then welcome to do so, that army though will be attacking the Elven city of Rivendell, if I were to ask you what do you think of the elves what would you tell me?" he asked them.

Wiglaf stepped forward, "I see them as the race who gave so much in the fight against evil, and I greatly respect them, I will go to rivendell and help them in their time of need like they did for my ancestors." he told them, all the human slaves looked among each other and nodded in agreement.

Iminye felt incredibly moved by that and smiled to herself.

Viridian smiled and turned to Grate, "And you?"

"The relationship between the Dwarves and Elves is… strained at best, hostile at worst, but I will not stand by and let the pointy eared woodfolk suffer under that, they probably wouldn't last long anyway." Grate said, "I will fight by your side!" he declared, the small population of freed Dwarven prisoners roared in agreement.

Viridian grinned, "Then Follow us to the DEFENCE OF RIVENDELL!" he shouted, and the group roared in agreement.

Two of the Dwarves took the stretcher and Viridian, and Du put Kes on the stretcher, the young Jedi hissed and yelped in pain from the motion.

"What ever that poison is its evil." Viridian snarled.

"Agreed." Du stated.

Janus turned to Iminye, "What is the poison?"

"At best is a traditional orc poison and the Athelas plus her own strength will cure her in a matter of days, At worse… we better pray that isn't the case." Iminye said gravely.

"Why what is it?" Viridian asked fearfully.

"At worse it's... Morgul sorcery." Celebion spat, "the Magic of the dark lords, an abomination of everything good on this good earth."

Viridian, Du, Janus, and Jak all looked at Kes more worried than ever.

"OI DWARVES WE MUST GET THIS LASS TO THE POINTY EARED WOOD FOLK ON THE DOUBLE LET'S MOVE QUICKLY!" Grate shouted, the two Dwarves immediately began to set off at a quicker pace.

"Thats a great idea." Viridian agreed.

The small force began to walk at a swift walk to a jog pace, several hours have passed the sun was beginning to go down in the west, the two Dwarves had changed shifts with other volunteers during the journey now two men were taking them, Abruptly a loud unnatural roar sounded, the two men dropped Kes, and she screamed in agony.

"Kes!" Du shouted and began to check her, and found the bleeding had started up again.

"Get her some new bandages, and some more athelas." Celebion ordered.

"Kes are you alright?" Viridian asked.

"I…'ll live… if we get... to.. R-rivendel." Kes whimpered out

Everyone drew their weapons, "what the hell was that?" Janus asked. Iminye and Celebion.

The elf maiden seemed to ponder it for a bit, "The closest I can think of is a winged drake, a cold one at that, the forces of Darkness have often bred such foul creatures I suspect this is one of them."

"The Pointy eared rout would be correct." a sinister voice chortled, the group turned to see the creature walk into their clearing with a man clad in black robes and a large headpiece that covered the majority of his face, Jak pulled out his blasters and aimed them at the man and beast, Celebion knocked his bow and prepared to fire at him should the need arise, Wiglaf held his spear at the ready, Grate aimed the blaster that Viridian gave to him at the man, "My master had bred this specimen with the help of our allies for his most loyal servants." he smiled revealing how poor his oral hygiene was, Kes seemed to be in worse pain due to the man's presence now, Viridian smoothed out her hair and stood up and began to move to meet the new comer.

"One would think their master would want their servants to be as healthy as can be." Viridian stated as he approached the man.

"Ah, the Jed'dai I hath heard much about thee."

"My reputation Precedes me then, I can't say the same for you."

"I am Arthinor of the Black Numenoreans, high sorcerer and chief warlock."

Viridian could sense the dark power radiating off this man in droves he was like the dark depths of the ocean where no light would ever shine, "Fancy titles and I can tell you can back them up, but I am no slouch either."

"I can tell, but I am not here to fight I am here to treat with thee."

Viridian raised an eyebrow, "Go on?" he asked wondering what the man could say.

"My master is prepared to offer thee a deal, thou don't get involved in our affairs ever again and thou shall depart this world never to return and he will not pursue you into the depths of space and leave the rest of the Galaxy be."

Viridian turned to the others behind him, he knew that they wanted to leave this world and so did he, there was no real reason to stay, but he did make a promise to Thorin and the Dwarves, as well as Elrond and the elves of Rivendell, what kind of Jedi or person for that matter would he be if he abandoned these people, not to mention from what Viridian could tell the offer could be complete bogus, he looked at the others and he could tell that each of them were not interested in his offer, "Tell your master this... if he has an offer like that send someone who actually looks respectable, and No deal."

"Thou art making a great mistake, Jed'dai."

"It's pronounced Jedi, Accursed." Celebion started, Arthinor made a growling noise and turned to the Dunedain ranger.

"Ah, the son of Arnor... I have a token I wish to show thee." the black numenorean said a chill went up Viridian's spine at the sadistic glee he felt coming off the man, as he held up a necklace of sea shells, Celebion gasped upon seeing it.

"Niwen." he uttered softly, Arthinor growled and threw the necklace at Celebion who caught it, and stared at it for a moment, "NIWEN!" he cried out in anguish.

"The Girl was dear to thee I see." Arthinor mocked sadistically, "Know she suffered greatly at the hands of her host." he continued, "Who would have thought one so young, could endure so much pain?" he mused, before grinning at the distraught man, "And she did, Celebion, she did."

Celebion had tears in his eyes as he looked up at the black Numenorean, Viridian was clenching his fist in righteous fury, and the rest of them were also angry and glaring at him, but considering he was technically protected under being an ambassador they couldn't kill him.

"Leave now." Viridian told him, "and know this Arthinor, If we see you again, you will not see the next day."

Arthinor snarled at Viridian but took to the air and flew towards the east, Kes became more at ease as she was tended to by the de facto field medics, Viridian placed a comforting hand on the Celebion's shoulder.

"Was he telling the truth?" Celebion asked, "Please tell me he was lying." he begged.

Viridian looked at him for a moment, "I wish I could say he was, and be telling the truth Celebion, but your girl did suffer by his hand… but I still believe that she is alive, no I know she is alive."

Iminye coughed a bit, "I know what afflicts Kes now." she said somberly.

Viridian, Du, Jak, and Janus all turned to her.

"When that thing was close Kes felt more pain, and when he left she felt more at ease… Morgul sorcery acts up when a practitioner of it is nearby… I have no idea if she'll make it to Rivendell." Iminye said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Viridian, Du, Jak, and Janus felt as if they had been slapped, "N-no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Viridian cried, "Please no!" he begged.

Jak placed a hand on Viridian's shoulder, "We'll get her home, Viridian we have to."

 **(Rivendell)**

Glorfindel watched as Bilbo, Xey, Jasmine, and Ulra walked about the city of Rivendell, Bilbo was pretty jitterish flapping his arms nervously, Xey was trying to focus on her martial discipline but she was having some trouble focusing, Jasmine was... nowhere to be found sometimes, and Ulra seemed to be praying when Glorifindel asked who she was praying to she answered 'Anyone willing to listen.', Bilbo then walked up to the dwarves, "They're late." he told them.

"Who are?" Bofur asked as he finished up another bomb.

"Viridian and his kin."

"They'll be fine, they could face the entirety of the orc race and come out on top." Bofur assured him, and started making another bomb.

"Something about these Vong makes me worried."

"The Lad is correct." Balin said, "those things are unlike anything we have faced on this world, not even the Jedi have faced them before."

"... What would you have us do?" Thorin sighed, "we can't get to them."

"No you can't, but I can." Glorfindel said as he came in, "I will go find them." he assured them.

Thorin approached the gold elf, "Please find them, and bring them back safely." he requested.

"I will not let them down." the balrog slayer assured him, then turned to the elven servant, "Prepare my horse."

"Yes my lord." the elf nodded and ran to do that.

After about ten minutes the horse was ready and Glorfindel was mounted on it, "Ride with haste Glorfindel." Elrond urged, "we'll need all the able warriors we can get."

"I shall return in three days My lord." Glorfindel assured him, then began spurred his horse on, " **Nora lim Nora lim Asfaloth!** " and with that the gold haired rider took off running to the much needed aid of the Jedi.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed this, for those of you wondering no Arthinor is not the Mouth of Sauron but they are from the same culture the Black Numenorians.**

 **I hope to see you all next time**


	14. All you can do

**AN: I actually finished this chapter a day after I posted the last one but since it was so short I didn't post it until I had the next chapter ready that being said I hope you enjoy it**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my OCs**

 **Chapter thirteen (All you can do.)**

Viridian was on his knees staring at Kes, his dear friend in mortal danger, 'she can't die, please don't let it be so.' he begged internally, Grate came up to Viridian and smacked him across the face, this proved to be a mistake as Viridian's reflexes sent Grate into a tree.

"My apologies lad, but you need to stop SULKING, it isn't helping her, we need to get her to safety and a skilled healer and the sooner the better if you sit here and weep then ye are wasting precious moments that could be spent saving HER LIFE!" Grate shouted.

Viridian sucked in a breath, "You're right, we can't linger any more, we must move on." he stated determined and picked himself up.

Everyone nodded in agreement and they began to speed up even fast traveling through the night and the next day stopping only for a bit of rest every hour or so, before picking up the pace again, during that period Kes's condition preceded to deteriorate, she grew noticeably pale and her amethyst eyes were beginning to fog up, and her breathing became shallower and shallower, the Athelas helped some, but it was only serving to slow down the poison, on the second day some of the group began to fall over in exhaustion, Viridian looked back and saw that many of the humans were becoming too weak to continue, "We'll rest now!" he called out and the group all sat down in the shade and took a much needed drink of water, "I truly admire their dedication but I can't ask any more of them, they have quite literally given everything." Viridian sighed.

Janus nodded, "That they have."

Du swallowed slightly, "But it may not be enough, Kes is getting colder, if we can't raise her body temperature…"

"We're too slow on foot we won't make it in time, and I'd rather not use our Jedi abilities to run while carrying her it might only worsen her now, damn it what can we do?" Viridian asked helplessly.

Grate walked up to him a pity filled expression on his face, "Sometimes we can't do anything, and only pray."

Viridian stared at Grate then looked over at Kes, "I-I… am scared."

"Aye lad, I understand, come let us appeal to god."

"... I can't think of anything else to do," Viridian sighed, Janus, Du, and Jak all walked over to Kes and kneeled next to her, and they each found themselves praying to a deity of some sort, Jak prayed to the Mandalorian god of war, Du prayed to the force, Janus prayed to the Carthean goddess of life, and Viridian prayed to the force, and then tried to pray to the Iluvatar, 'Eru, father I have no idea what you want to be called, I come to you today asking for mercy upon this girl, I will admit I don't want her to die and my motives might be incredibly selfish, she's my friend, I don't know what to say,' he sighed, 'I-if it is your will and that of the force that she must be taken from this plane then so be it, It will definitely sting and I will miss her, just make her passing as easy as possible in that case, amen.' as soon as he finished he heard it the sound of a horse and rider, Viridian looked up and saw Glorfindel riding in on a horse.

"I made the right decision to come, how is she?" Glorfindel asked.

"She was stabbed with a Morgul blade, she needs Lord Elrond." Iminye started quickly.

"Give her to me I will take her the rest of the way." the Balrog slayer commanded, Viridian and Du gently picked up Kes and set her on the horse, Glorfindel sat her in front of him and urged his horse to go back the way they came, " **Nora Lim, Nora Lim ASFALOTH!"** Glorfindel bellowed and the horse took off at incredible speed towards Rivendell.

"Please watch over them, and make their journey swift." Viridian whispered.

 **AN: well I hope you enjoyed this chapter it wasn't much but it is a character developement chapter I hope you enjoy.**


	15. Overkill? No such thing

**AN: well people I hope you all enjoyed the double post again, if you felt the chapters were too short that's okay, I tend to feel a bit self conscious when I make short chapters but hey it is what it is.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.**

 **Chapter fourteen, (Overkill? No such thing)**

Asfaloth was exhausted as he ran into rivendell after an almost full day of running at full speed Glorfindel got off the loyal horse and got Kes and ran up the steps, as Asfaloth fell on his side and spluttered a little.

Glorfindel looked over his shoulder, "Thank you my friend I will be sure to give you the best treatment later today." and sprinted for Elrond.

Elrond was looking over the map with Thorin, "We know that they are coming from the river, there we can wipe out a considerable number of them, followed by a field of your bombs, Xey told me that our friends have an idea for the third line."

"Huh at this rate they'll never reach the city." Thorin chuckled.

"We'll atleast reduce them to some manageable numbers." Elrond agreed.

"My lord Elrond, Glorfindel has returned and he has one of the Jedi, she's been stabbed by a Morgul blade three days ago." an elf servant stated rushing in.

"A what?" Thorin asked surprised.

"Bring her to the halls of healing quickly!" Elrond ordered, and sprang into action, and he ran to the healing halls, Kes laid on the bed almost completely still, so pale and breathing shallowly, Elrond was surprised that she wasn't dead, so he set about to work.

Xey, Jasmine, and Ulra stayed out on the balcony waiting for Elrond to appear with news on Kes's condition, they waited the entirety of the day, and night and it wasn't till dawn that Elrond came out to greet them.

"Is she alright?" Ulra asked.

Elrond looked back into the halls of healing before looking back at the group, they could tell he had an astonish looked on his face, "Your friend is a strong one, she managed to survive for three days after being stabbed by a Morgul blade, she is lucky, if she didn't get to us when she did…" he trailed off, the three young woman understood what he was saying.

"So she's fine."

"She'll be spending few weeks recovering, but yes she's fine, there is something else though, you see Morgul Poisoning while I did cure it will never truly leave her wound will never fully heal she will bear it for the rest of her days, do you understand?" he asked them.

The trio nodded, "Can we see her?" Jasmine asked.

"Of course, she is a asleep though so be warned of that." Elrond told them, "If you will excuse me I have to go."

"Of course thank you so much Lord Elrond." Xey said gratefully.

"You're welcome my lady." with that he left them with their recovering friend.

The trio stayed by her bedside for the entire day, "When do you think they'll be back?" Xey asked as they ate lunch.

"Soon they will most definitely be here before the horde arrives thats for sure." Jasmine answered.

Ulra appeared to be distracted by something, "Ulra?" Xey asked looking in the direction she was looking in, from behind a pillar Xey saw a young human boy no older then ten years old, "Hello there, my name is Xey Pen and you are?" Xey asked kindly.

The boy came out from behind the pillar, he had dark hair and was dressed in a simple tunic and waved softly, "I am Ar.." he started to say before he stopped himself, "I am called Estel." he corrected, "I don't mean to intrude my lady it's just that… I have heard the elves speak of you and my curiosity got the better of me."

Xey smiled warmly, "It's alright." she noticed him staring at Jasmine strangely, "this is Jasmine, she's of a race called the Cathar, she won't hurt you."

Jasmine smiled at the young boy, "Hello little one."

"Hello."

"And she is Ulra, she's of a race called the Miraluka."

Estel studied Ulra for a moment, "My lady may I ask why you wear a blindfold?"

"I don't mind." Ulra smiled, "My race are born without eyes and we wear a blindfold more for cultural reasons then anything."

Estel appeared fascinated, "Then how do you see?"

"Well young one my race is blessed with an ability that allows us to see through the very life energy of the universe."

"Can I learn this gift?"

Ulra smiled, "Maybe oneday."

Kes groaned softly.

"And she is Kes."

"She was one of the group who volunteered to go destroy the enemies flying machines?" Estel asked.

"Yes, she barely made it back alive to." Xey sighed.

Estel walked up to Kes's bedside and placed a hand on her arm, "Thank you very much my lady." he said gratefully

"Y-your welcome." Kes said her voice hoarse as she woke up.

"Kes! Are you alright?" Ulra asked.

"... I feel sore, but otherwise very comfortable… it's so hard to move." she added.

"You were stabbed by a blade infused with dark magic that is to be expected." Estel stated, the girls all looked at him for a moment, "Uh, Elrond is teaching me the arts of healing and what I need to know." he explained.

"I see." Ulra nodded, "You are one of the Dunedain aren't you?" she asked.

Estel nodded, "Yes, some children are sent here to learn under the elves before we are sent back to our people and we watch over the northern lands."

"Oh Where are your parents?" Jasmine asked.

"My mother is here, my father… was killed by orcs 8 years ago." Estel said somberly.

"You have my Sympathies." Kes said.

Xey placed a hand on the boys shoulder, "He must have been a good man."

"Mother loved him, and she said that he died protecting us."

Xey smiled, "Then he was a good man."

"The lady is correct lad." Glorfindel said as he came in, "He was a good man."

Estel turned and bowed to Glorfindel "Hello my lord."

"You don't need to bow to me Estel, how are you doing?" he asked him.

"I'm a bit nervous about the upcoming battle my lord."

Glorfindel nodded and got to his level, "That's a good thing Estel, it keeps one alert and focused and ready to protect their loved ones, but too much can paralyze you."

Estel seemed to think on it for a moment, "I think I understand." he nodded.

Glorfindel nodded with a smile, "So you came here to see these fair ladies?" he asked.

"I heard that they were great warriors I wanted to see them." Estel said innocently.

"Wars don't make one great." Xey said, "but they reveal both the ugliness and the valor of the men and women who fight in it."

"What do you mean?" Estel asked curiously.

"Wars are a terrible thing and should only be taken as a last resort, but I'm not saying that violence is never necessary here let me tell you a parable, imagine you are a man living in the countryside, you have a beautiful wife a lovely daughter about 12, and a son 10 years old, you're living a happy life, you're not rich you get by, but you got your farm you work hard everyday to bring food to the table for your children and your beloved spouse, one day a rainy morning you behold three silhouettes appearing from the horizon, a drop of cold sweat lingers on your forehead as if you were afraid of making a noise which could attract omen to your family, your world you have built with sacrifice and love is about to be shattered, because of greed, wickedness, and hatred, as the clouds open in the sky you recognize the glittering metal, and you have no doubt now, these men are armed thugs and they are coming for your family, how do we consider this man how do we judge this man? If you take your sword and you fight, you protect your family, you don't let those men rape your daughter, kill your wife, and take your son into captivity, I say the man who fights and kills to protect his family and freedom is a hero."

Glorfindel and Estel stared at her in silence, "That is quite the parable." the gold elf stated, "and I see what you are conveying, I agree that man is a hero."

"Yeah, I learned that parable from my people, we are a warrior people but not as prominent as the Mandalorians, we are still widely respected, well the Mandalorians are more feared I suppose." Xey mused.

"Why is that?" Estel asked.

"... There was a point in their history where most of them were incredibly… ruthless shall we say, they've long since reformed though some still cling to the old ways." Xey explained.

"They are more like the thugs of the Parable really." Ulra growled.

Kes began to cough again, "I'm sorry, can I have some water?" she asked her voice parched

"Of course." Estel said and fetched some water and handed it to her, "here you are my lady."

"Thank you." she said gratefully, sat up and took a few sips, "Are the others here yet?" she asked.

Glorfindel nodded, "Yes that is why I came here, they are busy though, setting up a third line of defences… at a remarkable speed to." he admitted.

"Really what are they doing?" Kes asked curiously.

"Well… they're digging trenches and traps, they are not wasting any space either if they can fortify it they are doing it… at this rate I don't expect the Orcs to even make it to the city." the elf lord stated.

Viridian used the force to dig up large amounts of dirt, then he used the force to break up said dirt then he hardened the small pieces of dirt to stone hard objects, "Janus how are you doing."

The crown prince was panting hard, and sweating rain drops from the work, "Viridian do you think that this is a bit over kill I mean we practically dug out enough dirt to create a small island already."

"There is no such thing as overkill prince." Viridian smirked, "it always pays to have contingencies."

"Yeah but how many?" the prince asked.

"You can never have enough." Viridian said simply, "... a lesson many of us didn't learn in the war." he mused sadly, as he began to 'dig' again, "We're going to do this till the end of the day and then we'll rest okay?" he asked him.

Janus nodded "Yeah that works, then we can see Kes." he smiled.

Viridian smiled as well, "Yes, then we can see Kes." he agreed, he bowed his head and closed his eyes, 'Thank you father.' he thanked Iluvatar silently, then they continued to work throughout the day as the sun set, they had built a massive net work of trenches and traps.

Du and Jak came met them at the gate house and they walked in, Viridan looked back and saw their master piece, a wall in front of the trench network that would force the enemy into the trenches where Viridan, Jak, Du, Xey, and Jasmine would be in with several volunteers of elven, Dwarven and human fighters to meet the enemy in there and fight them, on top of that there were several entrances to a tunnel network that led all throughout the trenches, then if they were forced out of the area Janus would use his abilities to wash away the trenches.

"This is going to be painful for them." Grate grinned.

"That's the point master dwarf." Viridian smirked, before a thought struck him, "Do you know a Dwarf named Thorin Oakenshield?" he asked him

Grate looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Any Dwarf worth his beard knows who Thorin Oakenshield is, Why do you ask?"

"I just thought it might interest you to know that he is here in Rivendell, and is getting ready to defend this place."

"... Truly?" Grate asked surprised, the other dwarves were as well to say the least.

"Yes I came here with him and his company, they'll be in Elrond's house if you want to see them." he told them.

"Well ya heard lads him let's go." Grate ordered, and the dwarves headed into the city.

Wiglaf, looked ready to collapse, Jak came to him and held him up, "Thank you sir Jak."

"Just Jak is fine, you all gave a lot I think you all deserved a good meal and rest." Jak told them.

"They earned a feast and more as far as I am concerned." Du smiled, the freed slaves all smiled gratefully at the alien, "Come on let's go." he beckoned and led them into the city, leaving Iminye, and Celebion behind with Viridian.

"All of them have given so much and had more taken from them." Viridian said outloud.

"We all have." Celebion stated.

"It all shall pass, the good and the bad it all passes away and a new day arises." Imine stated.

Viridian turned to Iminye, "I never, thought of it that way." he admitted.

"It helps me in my time of grief, maybe it will help you with yours." Iminye told him.

Viridian bowed his head, "Perhaps." he agreed, with that the trio made their way back into the city through the many gate houses they constructed, this would be the most dangerous assault for the orcs and Vong.

On the cliffside the imperial squad watched the Jedi work to build the trench network, with a great degree of respect, "Wonder where this ingenuity was during the war?" Keen snarled.

"Krell didn't care about the men under his command, Keen, Generals like Skywalker and others, have proven to be very creative." Jane stated.

"... I suppose that's true." Keen agreed reluctantly, "but they weren't the best commanders."

"No they weren't but they did there best… at least some of them did." Jaing stated.

Jane turned to the other storm troopers, "How are the barricades coming?" he asked them, as several of them set up several defencive screens and two MDUs that they had with them one was building a squad shield and the other was building a concussion grenade motor.

"They'll be ready sir." Dex answered.

"Good." Jane sighed, "I wish we had more to go on though."

"The Jedi didn't fight the enemy well they did but the goblins none of the Vong attacked them… these aliens… something about them unnerves me." Jaing admitted.

"They die just like anything else." Keen stated, "we will deal with them as they come."

"For once Keen, we are in agreement." Jane stated with a nod, "We'll give them hell."

Keen smirked, "I like that."

"Well, I think I'm going to get all I can tonight, let's set up those barricades." Jaing suggested.

Jane nodded in agreement, "Good idea." with that the Imperials got themselves prepared for the upcoming invasion.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed these short chapters, special thanks to Mandalore the Freedom my beta reader, for those of you wondering Estel is Aragorn a ten year old by at this point in time if you look at the lore it will confirm it he was born in third age 2931, Thorin's company didn't begin the quest till 2941, also MDU stands for Mobile Defence Unit, its a small vehicle that can build different devices to help fortify a small area.**

 **See you all next chapter "The Siege of Rivendell."**


	16. The Seige of Rivendell

**AN: hello everyone, man it took a while to write this chapter, a lot of things happend this month, I met a new author on this site and he's been helping me with this and I must say it turned out better than I ever expected but hey I'm biased towards my stuff… okay not really. Also in other news on July 4'th as well as this being my country's birthday, this story turned one year old, one whole year since I started it, I'm shocked only fifteen chapters in one year, well to be fair I did kind of hit a rut with this story some time ago it wasn't till another friend who I met on this site came across it and reviewed it that I got inspired to do this again you know who are thanks Magnetto 11, he has an entire series on this site called "Star Wars: Jedi Odyssey" I highly recommend you check it out once you are done here. Anyway enough of me rambling you are here to read my attempt to combine the Mythos of Tolkien and Star Wars together, so strap in guys this chapter is a blood bath.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my OCs**

 **Chapter 15 (The siege of Rivendell)**

They often say that the eve before the battle is the quietest: the tension of the night so thick that it could suffocate even those who wore gas masks. Many of the warriors were trying to find sleep, but it remained elusive as the snow fall in the summer. Viridian noticed this atmosphere in the city as soon as he entered it with Celebion and Iminye; he now saw several human warriors, wearing similar clothes as Celebion but they were getting measured for armor. He also saw several elves with blonde hair.

'From Lorien no doubt,' he thought to himself. He saw that each of these warriors were preparing for battle in their own way: some sharpened their swords, others tended their bows, some prepared the pole arms, others got their shields prepared, some were praying.

Viridian approached the house of healing with Celebion behind him, Iminye having decided to start touring the defences of the city. He stopped some distance from the healing ward.

"Celebion, how did you know that your wife was the one?" he asked him. Celebion thought about it for a moment:

"I am not sure," he admitted, "Why do you ask?" he asked before the answer came to his mind, "Your feelings for Kes have resurfaced, haven't they?" he stated more than asked.

Viridian nodded, "When she was dying, I began to feel so lost. I was scared I was going to lose her. I imagined the scenario and it tore me apart. I wanted to break down, but I didn't. But it can't ever be so." he sighed.

"Why not?" Celebion asked.

"Kes doesn't love me that way... she has no desire to enter a relationship like that, especially in these dark times," Viridian explained with a sigh, "and I must respect that."

"Are you sure about that?" Celebion asked him.

Viridian looked at Celebion with a raised eyebrow, "She said as much. Do you think she was deceiving us?"

"Who did she say it to?"

"A member of the resistance we were working with who tried to ask her out… Are you saying that there is a chance that..."

"I'm not saying anything," Celebion stated, "don't get your hopes up but be a little optimistic I will say."

"I'll try," he agreed. With that said, they walked into the halls to see the entire group there sitting around Kes's bed, smiling in relief, "Hi everyone, how are you doing, Kes?" Viridian asked, concern leaking into his voice.

Kes turned to him and smiled softly, "I will be fine, I still feel a bit sore, but it's to be expected."

"Morgul sorcery is not something to be taken lightly," Celebion said seriously.

"Yeah… it hurt a lot," Kes winced.

"You seem to know something about it?" Jak pointed out.

"...The Witch King of Angmar was a powerful master of the ' **art'** ," Celebion spat out the word as if it were poison, "and he used it to great effect to bring the north kingdom to ruin. You'll find a lot of the Dunedain despise Morgul sorcery and their practitioners."

"I can see why," Kes stated, "I may not have been there entirely, but I did hear the dark man's taunts... I am so sorry for what happened."

Celebion looked at Kes with concern and endearment in his eyes, "You have nothing to apologize for my lady, you weren't the one who did those things to her."

"Besides she is still alive, his thoughts betrayed him on that matter," Viridian replied hopefully, "we can still save her, Celebion."

Celebion clenched his eyes shut, fighting to hold back the swelling fear and anger within him, "I hope you are right."

Viridian placed a hand on his shoulder, "I hope I am too."

Kes looked at Viridian for a moment before she averted her gaze, "Do you know when the battle will start?" she asked outloud.

"We expect them to arrive tomorrow, if not then the day after," Jak answered.

Kes sighed bitterly, "I'm sorry I won't be of much help in this fight."

Du snorted, "It's alright, we understand you did a lot already by helping us destroy that camp. You rest up, and leave the rest to us."

Kes sighed in annoyance, her hands balling up into fists that drew white as bone, "It doesn't feel right! I should be out there with you all!"

"You need to rest," Virirdian assured her, his hand firmly rested upon her shoulder, "that stab wound would have killed a lesser being. Rest. We'll be fine."

Kes quivered slightly, her hand embracing his tightly, "Please make it through this," she turned to the rest of the party, her expression desperate and dire, "all of you."

"We've been in worse situations" Janus grinned from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat, "we'll be fine."

That night rest didn't come easy for the Jedi. Viridian sat on the bridge overlooking the valley in deep contemplation. The battle concerned him, sure. He was going to be fighting an enemy he still didn't fully understand, one who's full power had yet to be shown. And in this, his mind drifted to Kes.

"Argh!" he cursed softly, his eyes falling the to the ancient stone railing, "This is precisely why I avoided her during that campaign," he shook his head frustration, "I mean... it's true. She is attractive... and she and I have known each other for years, **and** we've been through alot together, but… do I love her that way?"

Apparently, he'd asked that out loud.

"Who? Love? In what way?" Jak half asked, half chuckled from across the bridge. Viridian looked at him with sudden annoyance. He'd wanted to be left alone… but, he didn't mind the company, he admitted. Jak walked the paces, and sat alongside him, grinning and shaking his head at the same time, "You should be focussing on the battle! Not this stuff!" he slugged him playfully in the shoulder. "Wait till after all the killing and madness been done!"

Viridian nodded solemnly, closing his eyes against her memories, "You're right, of course. I just…" he sighed longingly before the more pressing matters came to mind, "it can wait. Run the plan by me one more time, please."

"Of course. Elrond will use his powers to flood the river as the enemy attempts to cross it, then the minefield the dwarves planted will thin out those who make it through. Then you, Du, Jasmine, and I, along with a small contingent of warriors, will fight the enemy in the trench network we spent the day building. If they get through that, Janus and the lore master's will destroy the trench network and **if** they get through that they will have to break through the many gatehouses we have built and the massive barrier."

"Hold them off till the Army from Lindon gets here then wipe them out," Viridian finished, smiling, "sounds like a solid plan."

"Doesn't exactly seem all that fair, if you ask me," Jak chuckled.

"I'm not interested in being fair with a bunch people who want to kill me and the people I love," Viridian snapped, "fair is for the dead."

Jak looked at Viridian for a moment, shaking his head remorsely, "Look, I'm not saying I'm opposed to the idea. But you can either stop the enemy or you permanently end the threat."

'The stress must be getting to him,' Jak pondered, 'Kes is fine... but something isn't right.'

"Jak… Do you think it is possible to not hate your enemy?" he asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Well, It all depends on your enemies and the things they have done," Jak answered with a shrug.

"But… what if they couldn't make the choice?" Viridian asked, his eyes falling to the valley below, "These orcs... did you know they were elves once before Morgoth abducted some of their numbers? He... tortured them... and mutilated them... till they became the terrible things they are now. A monster with no free will, unable to do any good in this world," Viridian said, tears of frustration working up in his eyes, "and then they stab Kes… with a poison blade! She… she nearly died, and I am having a hard time keeping myself from hating them, Jak."

"... Maybe because you still hate a similar enemy?" Jak suggested.

"Do not bring the clones into this," Viridian protested weakly.

"And why not? What is so different between these orcs and the clones that one deserves your pity and not the other?"

"Maybe because the clones killed **my** people!" Viridian exclaimed, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes narrowed.

"The Actions of a few does not mean the Actions of all!"

"THE ACTIONS OF A FEW, YOU SAY! I'D SAY THE ACTIONS OF MOST! And the **one** clone I did meet who wasn't a part of it all was happy with **my** peoples destruction!"

"Spar was the not the best example!" he exclaimed with his hands held wide.

"Yeah? Well he was the only one **I** met!"

"Have you not met the Skiriatas?"

"Kal can go kriff off for all I care," Viridian snorted, rising to his feet.

"... So you have met him," he sighed wearily.

Viridian glared into the valley, "Yes, it's amazing how one can criticise the Jedi for being dogmatic while he's just as dogmatic about his own damn culture! Not to mention he did call my friends mother a hypocrite…" he shook his head at the memory, "though... he did apologize for it later after he realized the situation."

"Look, Kal is a bit of a fanatic, I will not deny that. But he is doing good by those Jedi refugees."

"Until he turns them over to the empire," he snorted, turning his back and walked away.

"Okay, that was just uncalled for!" Jak growled as he jumped to his feet.

"Is it!?" Viridian growled back, an accusing finger jabbed right the man's chest, "That man is a carking sheb who had borderline bigoted views on **my** people, unless **you** can tell me otherwise!"

"He allowed his son to marry a Jedi, **and** he adopted one into the fold! And I also wouldn't say that they are that far."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "What? What do you mean?"

"Etain Tur-Murkan, and Bardan Jusik."

"Oh, right, Bardan. I remember him," Viridian replied somewhat disdainfully.

"Alright, what's your problem, then?"

Viridian glared at him, "I don't know. Maybe his accusations towards the Order as a whole about using a slave army! I mean, for the love of... we did not even know the army existed till a few **days** before Geonosis! And we had no time to react before the war started, **and** he used that as his reason to leave! Give me a break!"

"Don't tempt me."

Jedi and Mandalorian glared at each other for a moment, hate filling them like fire ready to spread. But eventually, the fire burned to cinder, and Viridian deflated, "This is stupid," he sighed wearily, leaning against the railing, "we're arguing about a trivial matter when we should be preparing for battle."

"I would argue that it isn't trivial." Jak shrugged.

"When it comes to a battle of life or death? Everything else becomes trivial," Viridian muttered and walked away.

"You can't hate the clones forever!" Jak called.

Viridian stopped in his tracks. He did not turn, he did not speak. He just stared ahead.

'I don't want to hate them forever, Jak,' he thought to himself as he started walking again, but there was another voice within him; similar to the first but much more aggressive in its motivation, 'Yes I do.' he snarled.

Viridian placed a hand to his forehead and walked to the falls; the mist hitting his face in long sprays. He closed his eyes to relax, fighting to control his breathing.

"How, does somebody conquer their hatred?" he asked himself.

'Why bother?' the voice hidden deep in the back of his mind countered, it's cold tendrils wrapping around his remorseful heart.

'It's not the Jedi way," the other part of him-the one drilled into him over his life-fired back.

'The Jedi are against our nature. Humanity is naturally inclined to be violent. It is futile not to embrace the darkness.'

Viridian clenched his eyes shut, his jaw like a steel trap, and he resolutely shook his head, 'No. That may be true, but it doesn't have to be that way anymore. We moved past that when we could begin to communicate and travel the stars.'

'You are a fool; little more than a child, scared and alone. You deny the truth at your own peril.'

'... Leave me alone.' Viridian snarled.

'You don't seem to understand. I **am** you.'

Viridian opened his eyes and looked into the falls; he could see his reflection staring back at him. Then it took form, walking out from the falls to stand across from him. It looked like him… but it wasn't him. It was a cold, emotionless shell. Wrapped in pain and hatred; skin sickly and frail. But what was worse… were the eyes. Eyes of pure amber-instead of his own green pools-glaring at him with contempt and envy. And when it spoke back to him, it's voice was like venom in his mind: "Why do you deny the truth? We are one and the same, you and I."

"No!" he breathed but found himself choking on his words. A weakness took him, a throbbing fatigue that had him on his hands and knees. A cold sensation that bit through to the bone.

"You may run… you may fight," the darkness continued with a smirk, "but you will **never** escape me. Escape… who you truly are."

He wanted to scream. He wanted to shout and fight but he couldn't! It was like iron weights were cast around him, holding him down. Then he noticed the shadow, and a very distinctive pointed hat.

"Are you quite well, my friend?" his ancient voice echoed softly, breaking the spell. He scrambled to his feet, his voice and face frantic as he looked around:

"Where is he? Did you see him!? I-"

"Calm yourself, young one," he held up a reassuring hand, and Viridian almost felt frozen in place, "who do you speak of?"

Viridian whirled around back to the waterfall… gone. The reflection was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief, slowly regaining his composure. He turned to look back to the wandering wizard, who looked upon him with an aged concern and yet… a deep reserve of kindness and understanding. He… he hadn't seen such a composure since his younger days with Master Yoda. And that thought alone made him shiver.

"Gandalf…" he whispered softly, resisting the urge to cry, "what do you... think of me?"

Gandalf sighed and sat down on a bench looking at the waterfall for a moment, "...I think that you are a troubled young man, who is at a crossroads in his life."

Viridian sat down next to him, "What do you mean?"

"Viridian, the children of Iluvatar are capable of great and terrible things. You have had the misfortune of experiencing things that many men thrice your age would never experience, and have witnessed things that would break lesser men."

"I can feel it inside me, Gandalf," he whispered in despair, his eyes clenched against the growing weight against them, "an inner darkness… trying to tear itself out of me."

"That darkness is a part of you, Viridian, just as the light is, and it will always be a part of you."

"I don't like it." Viridian shuddered, "I need help."

"I will do what I can Viridian, but it is ultimately up to you to take those steps."

Viridian clenched his eyes shut, "I-Its so hard... I hate them so much! and I am beginning to feel the same for the orcs they nearly killed the girl I love."

"The emotion of hatred is a powerful thing," Gandalf soothed, wrapping his arm around his shoulders, "as is its opposite, love. All emotions have a purpose, one way or another."

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "Like?"

"Jealousy for example. A man or woman who is married can be jealous for the love of their partner. And hatred? A hatred for evil and the actions men commit. Anger at injustice, another example. You must understand that there is no right or wrong emotion. Only a right, or wrong, use of that emotion. An unhealthy use of it."

Viridian thought about it for a moment, "I'm guessing with love, possessiveness of the person you love is an unhealthy use of it."

"It all depends on the amount. A husband and wife belong to one another, Viridian, but to force yourself..."

"I get the picture." Viridian cut him off hurriedly, "I-I would like to become your apprentice," he bowed before him, "Gandalf, will you complete my training?"

Gandalf smiled warmly, patting him softly on the shoulder and gesturing him to rise, "It would be my pleasure Viridian."

Viridian then reached for the hilt on his belt and presented it to Gandalf, "I think she would want you to have it master."

Gandalf stared at the weapon for a moment, "M-me?"

"I can think of no better person, then you." Viridian stated, "I am not worthy of it."

"I would not say that Viridian. You desire to improve yourself and become a better man. You are more than worthy of the weapon, but I thank you for it. And until I learn how to build my own I shall carry this with care." Gandalf tenderly accepted the weapon and hid it within his cloak.

Viridian stood up, and half bowed to Gandalf, "Thank you, master."

"You are more than welcome, Viridian. There is one thing I wish to talk to you about. Its has to do with the rings that Celebrimbor left for you."

Viridian gave the Wizard his complete and utter attention.

Jak sighed and walked to the walls of the city, where he found Janus overlooking the field of battle.

"I overheard your ' **conversation'** with Viridian when I came down here." Janus stated sarcastically when he approached.

Jak sighed, "I am sorry about that."

"The others are in pain, Jak,' he eyed him coldly, "pain that the Clones caused. You can't expect them to forgive them that easily."

"...I have worked alongside the Clones. I have also learned of the biochip. I know there actions were not of their own choice," Jak stated.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I saw Clones who became great friends with their Jedi generals, those who would give them their all because they respected them, and Jedi who would fight with them with just as much loyalty and valor." Jak stated, "I refuse to believe that those Clones would obey such an order willingly."

Janus nodded in understanding, observing the battlefield below, "Interesting."

"Well what do you think?" Jak asked him.

"I'm indifferent." Janus answered, "I don't care one way or the other about the Clones. I never fought with them, I only fought against them when Vader's Fist came and subjugated my world. To me, the Imps are enemies to kill. I do not care their species, background, or their beliefs. They don't care about me either and I rather keep it that way."

"... I see."

"I have made the mistake of staying with Cyrus as he died… and learning about him... now I can't sleep."

"You humanized him."

"He had a wife, a son, and a baby on the way," Janus clenched his teeth, "and it makes me wonder how many people I've killed in battle who had families. I hate the quiet... I'd rather be fighting so I don't have to think of these things any more... how do you deal with it?"

"Don't think on it. You acknowledge it, but you never think about it much. Fact remains. While that is possibly true, it's a life or death situation for us. We too have people we care about and want go back to. So ask yourself... Do you continue to want to see them again?"

Janus felt a bit more at ease now, "I have a sister… I want to see her again."

"Good. Anyone else?" he asked, his curiosity growing; realizing that the prince of Carthea didn't talk much about his past before.

'I suppose it makes sense,' Jak mused to himself, 'he was hiding… and he didn't want to be viewed differently.'

The Mandalorian found that he respected that, he wanted to be judged on his merit not his blood line

Janus bowed his head, "Father died before I was born. It hurt my mother and well... my sister had to raise me. It seemed like my mother was finally coming out of her grief and was actually trying to make it up to us… before the knights killed her. Being part of the royal family, they were trying to seize power by killing us off. We went into hiding and I never saw her again… I only have the resistance and her now."

"I'm sorry."

"I still hold hope that I will see her again."

"You should, but be prepared just in case."

"... I know." Janus said hauntingly, his eyes closing in utter sorrow.

"So what do you think of the plan?" Jak asked, changing the subject.

Janus nodded, grateful for the change in subject, "It's a good plan. I memorized it quite well and I'm still going over it in my head, and I will dream of it if I go to sleep tonight."

"You can do that?" Jak asked curiously.

"I wish," Janus sighed, "I'm still building the discipline to control my dreams."

"Good luck with that," Jak smirked, and patted his shoulder.

"Thanks." Janus replied, the breeze blew his way; sighing as it hit him, "Jak, how did you know you loved Ulra?"

Jak gave Janus a look, "Why do you ask… has somebody caught your eye?".

Janus blushed slightly, "I don't know if what I am feeling is love or lust."

"Ah I see. When did this start, and who is it?"

Janus blushed across his entire head, taking a similar shade of a tomato, "Iminye, and well... she looks beautiful, and throughout the month that we traveled together, she told us more about this world history and the songs of her people. I even spent one of the nights where I was on watch talking with her... she's a lovely person."

"No denying that." Jak agreed, "If you want my advice, I'd say wait till after the battle and I will give it."

"Deal." Janus agreed, little did they know Iminye was patrolling the defences of the city and had heard the majority of their conversation.

Like a shadow, Iminye snuck away noiselessly. Under the light of the moon, her mind wracked and turned with the conversation, contemplating its meaning with utter confusion… until she stumbled into Glorfindel, and was knocked to the floor:

"M-master, I-i'm sorry." she stammered embarrassingly, as she clambered to her feet, "I d-didn't mean to-"

The gold elf smiled warmly and helped her up, "It's quite alright, what troubles you? Your mind seems preoccupied."

Iminye looked back at the wall that Jak and Janus were at, before turning back to her teacher, "I overheard a private conversation, and found out that the prince fancies me."

Glorfindel smiled, "I see, so what are you going to do?"

The female elf turned to Janus in the distance, she found the young man attractive and had talked with him a bit, "I-I don't know."

"My advice, get to know him and take it from there," Glorfindel told her, "Don't rush it."

Iminye turned to Glorfindel for a moment, peering into his sagely eyes, and nodded with small smile, "Thank you my lord."

Glorfindel smiled warmly, "Come, there is a battle to be fought soon."

Imnye nodded, a determined look on her face, "You're right."

Abruptly the elven horn sounded and the men and elves barked out orders. Iminye and Glorfindel heard the roar of a jet pack ignite, thundering off towards the trench network. Not wasting another moment, the elf lord and lady took off after the advancing Mandalorian.

"So it has begun."

An onrush of boots and armors clanging rang through the air. Thorin, Dwalin, Fili and Kili all donned their heavy plate armor and ran for the trench; gathering Viridian, Du, Grate, a few dwarves, a dozen dunedain and several elven warriors along their war march. They checked their equipment, pulling at their blades and leather fasteners. Viridian and Du could see they were nervous and anxious, their eyes straining to catch the first sight of the enemy.

Viridian and Du lept over the gates and into the trenches, donning their elven armor kite shields as they hit deck. Fastening the shields straps, Viridian hoped it would be enough to guard the Vong's staff venom. They turned a corner and found Glorfindel and Iminye waiting at the end.

"You know where to go?" Viridian asked. The elves nodded and ran deeper into the trench line. Then suddenly, in the distance, they could hear the loud crash of thunder, but no lightning that preceded it. The orks had reached the mindfield.

'Crude but effective.' Viridian thought to himself morbidly as he and Du ran to the entrance of the trench maze. He spotted Glorfindel standing before the entrance barricaded by a thick stone wall. The High Elf turned to him as Viridian smirked:

"Shall we wait out there for them and tell them to turn back?"

The gold elf smiled slightly and nodded. The duo slipped out the gate and waited for the orcs to crest the hill. In less than a minute, they did. Orc infantry, Vong and several formations of wargs were making like hell towards the defenders. At their lead running at full pace was a massive orc similar to the one that Viridian killed for stabbing Kes. Glorfindel stepped forward: his bright aura radiating outward, his golden hair billowing in the wind and the stars and moon smiling upon him. He truly looked divine.

"Halt creatures of darkness!" Glorfindel bellowed, his voice taking on the percussion of a hurricane. The horde stopped in their tracks: the orcs cowering in fear while the Vong and the orc chieftain glared at him in a mixture of rage and anticipation. Looking over their wretched rabble, Glorfindel smiled confidently and continued his standing ovation:

"I am Glorfindel, High Lord of Gondolin and Rivendell, Balrog slayer, emissary of the Valar, and Elrond's most powerful warrior! Leave this place now and you may yet keep your wretched lives! But… if you choose to continue your course of action…You shall become ashes and dust to be scattered into the four winds!"

The horde gazed upon the malevolent and near celestial being, frightened and in awe. The orc rabble cowered further to the ground. The Vong snarled and snorted in shows of bravado. The only one truly not afraid was the orc chieftain, who stepped forward with a sign of defiance. Viridian noticed he was wearing the Vong's crab armor, no doubt Zimur's answer for the Jedi lightsabers. He was also well armed: a spear in hand, a scimitar on his hip, and a hammer with the head of a wolf strapped to his back.

Suddenly, the Chieftain stopped at the head of his army, turning to look upon his ravenous soldiery. Then he busted out laughing to the heavens.

"Fools! We are the **Fighting Orcs** of **Gundabad**! We came here for a **fight, food** , and **blood**! We will kill every last one of you, and no pretty elf is going to stop us!" he shouted full of zeal, this emboldened the orcs and they all howled in anticipation, the collective noise echoed throughout the entire valley.

The defenders fell into utter silence watching as the orcs drew themselves into a hollering frenzy. Then Viridian stepped forward onto the level ground and drew Ringel. The Elven sword glowed a billowing sapphire that mystified the orcs before it's awesome wake. Viridian glared with a rage that could melt the stars and bellowed:

"Then **you** shall meet whatever fate awaits you, spawn of Morgoth!" he then looked upon his own side, and he sighed, his voice softening but its intensity never wavering, "I hope you find peace."

He then he lifted Glorfindel over the wall and jumped over himself.

"You are dead Jedi! YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!" the orc leader bellowed, "I Clegor am the vessel of your destruction!"

Viridian gave him a look, "Bring it, you wretched creature." he said full of pity, 'killing them would be a mercy.' he thought to himself.

And with that, the battle began. With horns ringing out commands, the horde swarmed over the battlefield in an onrush that made the air shiver in fear and the ground quake in their wake. The sky blackened with swarms of arrows bringing death from above. The front ranks fell in great numbers, scores struck down or at least incapacitated. But for every single one the archers managed to fell, three more were as quick to scurry over their slain comrades. The archers continued their onslaught for several minutes, slaying at least a company in strength and several more wounded. However, they drew for their last arrows, and found their quivers run dry.

However, this had been planned. Immediately, they let enemy draw close to the wall; the orcs scurrying on top of one another to get up to the defenders. They formed piles upon piles, slowly ascending the stone defense. Then, the defenders unleashed hot pauldrons of boiling hot oil upon their foes. A great scream rang out as dozens were burned upon the spot only for dozens more to take their place, and fall screaming to floor in a burning pitch. The air grew foul with their growing stench as more and more oil was dropped upon the orcs.

However, the orcs kept coming. Discarding their heavier equipment, the elves quickly withdrew across the bridge and towards the gates. The orcs, however, were quick on their tails. More archers inside the defense began firing another flurry of arrows, felling another rank of orcs. It bought the elves enough time, if just barely. As the last defender reached the gate, and it shut behind them, the orcs were upon it. They piled and pounded against it, trying to use their force of numbers to bring the great oak door down.

Unfortunately for the orcs, it was exactly what they'd intended for them to do. As hundreds piled into bridge head, Janus raised his hands. Suddenly, the bridge started to shake violently, and in the blink of an eye turned to mud! The orcs fell to their deaths, screaming in the hundreds as they disappeared into the blackness below. With great concentration, his body shaking and his face constipated, Janus forced the molecules to reform. The mud turned to stone, the cement reforming between the blocks, and a handful of seconds later the bridge rested in its former place.

And with that, he collapsed to the floor, utterly exhausted to the bone. However, the fight was far from over. They could hear the second wave coming, and Janus was far too spent to move; despite this and his body's protest he rose to his feet as Jasmine took him by the shoulder, and plucked him into a fireman's carry. Quickly, the defenders made the mad dash through the trench line to the next position. No sooner than they had then they heard a loud boom.

Like a thunderclap, the oaken door buckled under the onslaught of something heavy. Then another struck, bowing it in the middle and sending great showers of splinters and a small hole appeared in it: a wolf's head made of iron. On the third strike of the orc chieftain's hammer, the doors flew off their hinges and crashed to the floor.

"Go!" he bellowed with an extension of his great weapon, "KILL THEM ALL!"

Viridian and Du stood side by side as the orcs breached the gate and came into the trenches. Just as they expected they split up following the different paths of the maze that they had built the day prior. Like rushing water flowing into a man made crop feeder, the orcs spotted them and charged them with hoots and howls. Viridian and Du narrowed their eyes slightly, raising their hands in gestures of power. Suddenly several spears sprouted out of the ground, impaling several orcs at a time. Then, to make matters worse, more of their ranks fell from swarms of arrows. In less than thirty seconds, the trench line was filled to the brim with corpse. However, the Jedi were not finished quite yet. Viridian and Du pulled the spears up and then hurled them into the next wave of attackers, piling the trench further with corpses and pools of dark, black blood.

This continued for several hours, the orcs launching their never ending assaults regardless of the horrendous casualties the two Jedi alone were inflicting. One by one, the trenches were choked with corpses, and as dawn broke: the sun rose and illuminated the cool, dew damped, and blood drenched battle ground. At this point the orcs stopped and retreated; realizing the utter futility of their attack.

"Where are they going?" Du asked panting; looking ready for more.

"You must remember, my friend, the orcs hate the sun. They can not stand it. For it paralyses them," Glorfindel pointed out to him, then he bellowed out a command to the trench fighters, "We appear to have brief respite! Make the most of it, and establish more barricades! They will come again!"

After a few minutes they set up a few barricades and reset the traps, then they took a few minutes to rest.

Meanwhile on the cliffside, wary eyes watched the carnage below and sighed in relief when the Orcs did not come their way. Sitting up from his observation position within their makeshift camp, Jane wiped the perspiration from his brow.

He turned to the rookie of the squad, gesturing to the cliffside and handing him his binocs, "Keep an eye out for anything. The rest of us will reinforce this position."

Dex nodded, "Aye aye, sir." and turned his attention to the choke point the orcs would inevitably come through. His hud told him all clear, 'why would the orcs commence with an attack like this when they know they can't come out in the sun?' he asked himself, his eyes happened to wander upward and he saw clouds rolling in.

"Niles, correct me if I am wrong but this entire week was supposed to be clear and sunny, wasn't it?" Dex asked turning to his fellow trooper.

Niles looked up and hummed in thought, "You're right. I guess the weather monitor was wrong."

Jane pursed his lips; he doubted that very much. He knew that some force users were capable of altering the weather. Hell, that boy in Bree summoned a lightning bolt on them! That begged the question though: why would he destroy their chance at respite by giving the orcs valuable cover against the sun? His eyes widened as he thought of the only logical answer.

"Dex, Niles, Alaya," he called out through his comms, "take a look around see if you can find anything… out of the ordinary."

The two men and woman nodded in understanding, and began to walk into the woods looking at the HUD's readout to get an idea of what they were looking for.

"What do you think got the captain all worked up?" Alaya asked her companions over the private comms as she ducked under a branch.

"... Now that I think about it, I think he knows the reason for the unusual weather activity," Dex realized after a moment.

"Oh do tell." Niles urged as he broke a branch in his way, and gave him his attention.

"Well, you remember that Jedi in Bree? The one that summoned that lightning bolt on us?"

At that, the others also realized the CO's line of thinking. They began to move more stealthily across the valley until they found it. They ducked into the shrubbery and peered through the clearing; seeing a man chanting something in a language they didn't understand. He had an ornate helmet on from what they could see, and was covered in head to toe in black robes. There was a woman with him, and suddenly she spotted the imperial stormtroopers. Alaya could tell she looked uncertain about something but she also saw that she was pleading for help with her eyes.

"Sir, we believe we found the source of the weather disturbance: a man chanting in a strange language, and a woman with him. She seems to have spotted us, but has not alerted him yet. They don't appear to be armed. What do you want us to do?" Niles asked over the comms as he took aim.

"Engage at discretion," he ordered softly, "I am sending backup your way."

Niles nodded and silently switched back to the squad's comms., ordering softly:

"Set to stun."

His thumb pushed back the receiver switch with an inaudible ease, taking aim at the robed man's upper torso.

"I know you are there, storm men!" the dark man smirked, breaking off the chant and turning to the squad's general direction. He stepped towards them, peering into the treeline looking for them. Then he viciously backhanded the woman with a loud _slap_ , causing her to tumble to the floor; nursing her busted lip and backing away from him like a startled cat.

"I sensed your thoughts slave. You truly think they would help you?" he laughed cruelly, sending a chill up her and Dex's spine at the sound, "They care not for you or others like you. To them, you are nothing."

She glared at him with eyes of pure hate, "It can't be worse than being here with you and Sauron!" she spat.

"My Master has told me to spare you all those years ago."

Niles had enough and fired off a stun bolt, the Black Numenorean raised a hand and an invisible barrier suddenly shuddered with energy as the blue bolt struck it.

"Ah," he grinned turning to the tree line, "There you are."

"Set to kill!" Niles ordered over the comm, "Dex, flash him! Alaya, Grenade afterwards! MOVE!" he bellowed.

Dex pulled the flashbang and threw it at the Black Numenorean; detonating just above the man's head and causing him to fall in a screech of pain. His hands pulled at his blind and tearing eyes, howling with a pain he'd never known before. then just as planned, Alaya tossed the grenade. It flew true, but then a winged creature suddenly dropped in and flicked the grenade high into the air with a swipe of it's winged talons.

"Oh kriff." Dex cursed as he saw the creature.

It almost looked like a reptile crossed with a bat. It snarled at them and hugged its master protectively. It had razor sharp teeth, but they couldn't make out the eyes; it appeared to be glaring at them with a protective fury.

The black Numenorean roared in rage "You are dead, storm men!" his hands suddenly glowed green with some kind of electricity! Just as he prepared to unleash his fury upon them a rock hit him in the side of the head. He turned and saw his slave with a rock in her hand; glaring at him.

"I'd rather die than be yours one more day!" she screamed with a furious anger.

The sorcerer snarled, "Then you shall die!"

Niles rose, firing off a burst at the duo. The flying beast hooted in pain as the bolts hit it and it charged him! He rolled out of the way, its claws raking the top of his helmet.

"Alaya, help that woman! Dex, help me with this thing!" he called out as he dodged it again, and shot it in its under belly.

"Throw a grenade in its mouth!" Dex suggested taking some potshots at it.

"Oh brilliant idea and how do I do that if it's trying to pick me up!?"

"Keep it busy!" he shouted back, "I'll take care of the rest!"

Niles cursed softly, and took off at run; firing blindly into the canopy above. The creature swooped in after him, its claws digging into his shoulder plate. He rolled to ground, taking the creature down with him, and allowing him to elbow it in the beak. It flew back in indignation, retreating to a high branch to recover before Niles continued pouring fire at it. It took off like a rocket, bobbing and somersaulting in the air like a masterful dogfighter; the blaster bolts missing it by millimeters.

"Oh Hell," Niles cursed. Now it was coming at him. Then there was a rustling in the foreground, branches and twigs breaking and snapping in a hurry as Dex shouted:

"HEY! CATCH!"

He tossed the spherical Thermal Detonator at the creature, and as expected it swooped down to catch it. As its beak clamped down on the metal ball, Niles ducked for cover. A moment, a scarlet fire erupted high in the air with a thunderous _boom!_ Soon after, all that was left were the charred scales falling haphazardly to the forest floor below.

"WHOOO! Thanks Dex! I owe you one!"

"You're paying for our next pint in Bree!" Dex shouted.

"Deal! Now let's go help Alaya with that carking sheb!"

Alaya first tackled the woman out of the way of the stream of lightning before taking some shots at the Sorcerer.

"Take cover!" she told the woman.

The former slave of the sorcerer nodded, but she still wanted to get back at the bastard: so she hid behind a tree and waited for her opportunity.

Alaya spent most of the fight either dodging lightning or shooting back at her attacker; staying on the move never staying in a single spot for too long, lest she be fried by some electricity.

It was going well, then she was hit by a well timed fire ball and sent into a tree. She groaned, rubbing her helmet meant for her face. Then she felt a strong vice grip her neck and lift her up by one hand. She looked into the man's obscured face. Though she could not see his eyes she could feel the incredible hate boring into her.

"I am Arthinor, chief war lock of the black numenoreans, remember that name and tell it to the many I have killed when you go to the doom of men beyond darkness."

"Oh yeah!?" she cursed back, smirking despite the ice cold fingers digging into her throat, "Well, I'm Alaya, Sergeant of the Special Operations Brigade on Arda, and I don't give a Sarlacc's hide what you are and where you come from! I'm still going to give you a belly full of bolts and a pool of your own blood to drown in!"

"Fanciful talk for a defeated opponent."

"Who said it would be today?"

Abruptly, Arthinor felt a branch hit him in the head and he dropped the imperial and turned to the source of the attack, his slave, he simmered in rage.

"YOU!" he bellowed, creating a shockwave that sent the two women and gear flying, "I am done with you, whore, but I am not going to kill you yet! I am going to draw it out and kill the people you love, Niwen of Arnor! I shall kill your only living relative and make you watch, and only then will I kill you!"

Arthinor let out a whistle and another flying steed came in, much bigger than the first. He mounted it and took off into the air.

Alaya watched him fly away, "Now would be a good time for a nice tube rocket."

"Chock it up on the long list of things we still need from the Brass," Dex chuckled in the gloom.

Niwen began to weep in the background, the three imps looked at each other.

Alaya approached her and took off her helmet, revealing her red hair and blue eyes, her round face and a scar on her upper lip.

"You're safe now. He won't hurt you anymore." she assured her, taking her shoulder gently as she continued crying, "I am Alaya, who are you?" she asked, although she heard her name from the dark man she wanted to hear it from her.

"I couldn't remember my name until he said it, he took my memories I can't remember anything before he took me from my people!" she sobbed, at that moment Jaing ran into the clearing.

"... Seems like you handled everything." Jaing stated as he looked around, "Not bad… for a Wombie."

"Thanks a bit, you test-tube born, same-face wearing waster!" Niles grinned, at the annoyed demeanor the squad's XO adopted.

"Just get back to camp, I'm sure your little scuffle was heard throughout the Valley we need to fall back to our defencive line. Get your helmet back on, Sergeant!" he ordered Alaya.

"Sir what about her we can't leave her here." Dex piped in gesturing to Niwen.

"... Bring her back to camp an extra hand wouldn't be too bad." Jaing said after a moment of thought.

After that brief discussion the imps and one frightened Dunedain woman made their way back to their camp and prepared for the next fight.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed it and are looking forward to the continuation of the battle in chapter 16 "The enemy of my enemy… is my brother." based on that you guys should be able to guess what happens :D**

 **See you next time.**


	17. The Enemy of My Enemy is my Brother

**AN: Hello everyone here's another chapter, thank you Jacob for your help I recommend you guys check him out, anyway onto the chapter**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

 **Chapter 16 (The Enemy of My Enemy… is my Brother)**

Jane sat on a moss ridden log, watching the choke points for either the enemy or his people. He absently thumbed the stun/kill setting on his rifle, eyes constantly darting back and forth from his weapon to the horizon in the distance. Behind him, Keen paced impatiently in the camp.

"Want something to do?" Jane asked humorously.

"More like I want something to kill," Keen grumbled simply and honestly.

Jane shook his head both in amusement and worry, "Wait for the Orcs and Vong for that."

"I don't know. I could kill a traitor right now." Keen stated, a threatening tone in his voice, as he pointed the rifle at Jane's back.

"Keen… get that rifle **out** of **my** back, or **else** ," Jane said not turning to him, "besides, you have no evidence that says I'm a traitor and I haven't committed treason. So, put. The. Gun. Away."

Keen went at ease but he still glared at the CO's back, "Maybe not. But your Pro Jedi sentiment may lead you to commit treason!"

Keen suddenly found himself staring at the business end of a blaster pointed between his eyes, and an angry Jane Mallory above him well out of the reach of his legs. His eyes glared with pure, unfiltered rage like he could burn the man below him to ash with just a glance.

"I am not pro Jedi, or anti Jedi," he rasped, fighting to keep his control and composure, "I don't think these Jedi here should be punished for something a **few** of their number did, and **if** I find my brother, Viridian, alive and well and I was told to kill him... you better damn well believe I would turn my rifle on my superiors! He is **my** brother! I would fight the **whole** of the Empire for **him**! And if that makes me a traitor, then so carking be it! I would do the same for **any** of my family!"

Keen stared at him with a mixture of shock, rage and confusion. Jane simply shook his head and lowered his weapon to hip level, "But I guess that is beyond your comprehension."

As he turned his back on the fallen Clone, Keen bellowed after him as he got to his feet, "What is that supposed to mean!? That just because I'm a **Clone** I have no concept of **Family**?!"

" **NO**!" Jane whirled about with a fury to behold, "It's because you're a carking **psychopath** and a **monster** that enjoys killing above all else that makes it beyond your comprehension!"

Keen just laughed; admitting the truth in that, "So why keep me around?"

Jane aimed his rifle at him, "I ask that every day, but quite frankly its because I need all the help I can get on this world and unfortunately, you're one of the only options."

He sighed and lowered his weapon to his hip. Just then, the rest of the squad came in with Niwen. They instantly detected the high tension in the camp like a person trying to swim after he ran into the water, the sudden coolness hitting him like a wall to the face.

Jane turned to the others and instantly took notice of Niwen and her busted lip; turning to Niles and barking, "Report."

"We located the source of the disturbance. His name was Arthinor, a Black Numenorean Warlock," he then gestured to the girl on the floor, "she was his slave. Her name is Niwen, a Dunedain." Niles reported swiftly

Jane nodded and approached the lady of the Dunedain; smiling in assurance, and placing his weapon on the magnetic strip on his back to show he meant no harm, "I am Captain Jane Mallory. I am in charge of this squad. I would have our medic look you over, but sadly he was killed in Bree."

Most of the Squad bowed their head at the mention of Cyrus.

"I-I am sorry to hear that." Niwen stammered nervously, "your people saved me from…" she began to tear up, her voice breaking into a sob. Jane truly pitied her, as did Jaing and the others.

"Ma'am, please come take a seat," Jane soothed gently, taking her hand. She jerked her hand back in response before finally, gingerly, accepting it. He gently escorted her to a crate and sat her down, asking, "Is there anyone in Rivendell that you know that can help you, some of your people are there?"

Niwen began to sob, "I don't know! H-he took my m-memories." she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Jane turned to Alaya and signed, "Watch her." She nodded and started walking to them.

"Ma'am, I need to consult with someone. I will be right back, alright? Alaya will be right here with you."

At her nod, Jane stood up and walked over to Jaing. The clone nodded simply.

"What do you think?" Jane asked keeping his voice down so their guest couldn't hear.

"All the signs are there," Jaing sighed, "she pulled away from you when you tried to touch her the first time. She's nervous to be around us, but is also relieved not to be back there. He abused her… viciously and without mercy."

"What about signs of…" Jane trailed off.

Jaing looked at Jane, "...yet to be determined, but highly probable, and if so I look forward to painting that chakkars head red with the inside of his skull."

"Get in line." Jane snarled in agreeance.

"Aren't you going to ask about the memory loss?" Jaing asked.

"No, don't need to," he shook his head sadly, looking over at her as he continued, "he suppressed or erased her memories. The Jedi could do it. Why not a Sorcerer on this backwater world especially with a demon who taught him the art?"

"You really studied the mythology of this planet, didn't you?" Jaing asked surprised.

"It's my job to understand this world for us, Jaing," Jane stated, "it could mean the difference between life and death."

"I see." Jaing mused, nodding in understanding.

Jane sighed, taking a pair of Binoculars and peering into the defences of the city for a moment.

"WE HAVE TO HELP THEM!" Niwen suddenly exclaimed, "I remember overhearing something from the Yuuzhan Vong Leader."

"What did you hear?"

"They were… going to fly in these tan.. Tra." she stumbled trying to find the right words

"Transports?" Dex supplied.

"Aye, a transport and drop the **new** breeds of orcs and Trolls into the city behind the main bulk of their defences!" Niwen exclaimed, "They'll be slaughtered!"

"Works for me," Keen smiled, "they deserve it for harboring Jedi."

"No, they don't, Keen." Jane sighed tiredly as he turned back to the city and looked through his Binoculars into the city's defences, "nobody deserves to die to these things."

Keen responded with something but Jane saw something that caught his attention and he barely heard it. He continued to peer into the Binoculars until he saw it again. He let out a joyous laugh, confusing the people under his command.

"Sir?" Niles asked confused for his captain's well being.

Jane pulled away, smiling wide, and held out his Binoculars for him, "Come take a look," Niles walked up and took the Binoculars; peering into the sector that Jane was pointing at.

Niles blinked a few times, and disbelievingly said "I don't believe it but based on the description you gave us... that's your brother, isn't it? What are the odds of that?"

"I don't know!" Jane exclaimed in pure joy, "This tells me that there is a God! I don't know his name but he exists!"

"You're forgetting one crucial fact." Alaya called out, "Niwen just said there is a bunch of enemy reinforcements coming… so what are we going to do?"

Jane turned to the city, "Commander Libel gave me free range. It's basically up to me to decide if we help the elves defend the city, and the Yuuzhan Vong are a threat unlike anything we have faced before. I would say that we need all the allies we can get, the Jedi included."

"But they killed Cyrus!" Jaing exclaimed angrily, his fist clenching at his sides.

"And I will forever hate myself for that," he replied, turning to face him, "Cyrus was a good man and was screwed over by our government as well as me when I ordered us to chase the Jedi in Bree, but that doesn't change the fact that the Yuuzhan Vong will kill all of us... and that the Jedi down there have more experience fighting them."

Jaing sighed in resignation, "I see your point. The Orcs and the Vong are a bigger threat at the moment, and there are innocent people down there. I'll be **damned** if I'd leave them to that fate."

"Putting aside our differences to defeat a common foe?" Niles asked with a smirk, "Sound like something out of an invasion holo film. Count me in!"

"I shall follow your lead captain!" Dex saluted.

Alaya smiled and nodded, "I have brothers myself, Cap'n. I have your back."

Keen glared at the entire group with such hatred that if he were Sith his eyes would turn blood red, "As long as I get to kill some orcs, I'll be fine."

"There is but one question," Niles started, "how the hell are we going to get our supplies down there?"

"Do we really need to worry?" Alaya shrugged, "The Orcs can't go into the sun and we stopped Arthinor's little ritual."

Niwen shook her head furiously, "No, not these orcs. They **can** go into the sun! They're the perfected orcs Sauron has been trying to create for thousands of years The Vong did something and sped it up… these Orcs are like no other."

Jane's jaw tightened. That settled it for him: they were going to fight with the Elves, help defend their city, and in the process learn about their enemy's ground engagement doctrine. He would not deny that his personal feeling did play a hand in this decision... if he was asked about it later.

"Pack up the MDU's, and our gear with the bikes." Jane ordered decisively.

"Cap'n, with all that weight we won't be able to make it across the ravine!" Alaya reminded him.

"I am well aware of that, Sergeant," Jane nodded, "Niles, you and I will get the rotary blaster cannons. Dex, get the grenade launcher. Jaing, you are in charge of this little running maneuver. Make sure to get into their defences and assure them we mean no harm!"

Jaing nodded in understanding.

Jane turned to Niwen, "It looks like you will get to see your people. You can tell the Jedi down there what you told us. They will understand."

Niwen nodded nervously, "W-what about you?"

Jane grinned and put his helmet on and his voice came through the filters, "I will catch up."

With that he and Niles picked up the Z-6 Rotary blaster cannons, while Dex picked up a grenade launcher. Jane then turned to Keen with a stern glare.

"You are not to harm the Jedi! In fact, don't even **talk** to them! And if you do harm them… I will throw you into the Ravine myself!"

Keen glared back hatefully, but he nodded anyway and spat, "Aye aye, sir."

With that Jane, Niles, and Dex began to march with the small convoy following. They marched down the path, staying to the sunlight whenever they could. As the moved on the path, the skies darkened with a cloud of Orc arrows.

"TAKE COVER!" Alaya pushed Niwen under one of the bikes to provide her cover.

The arrows peppered the ground around them, some impacting their armor and splintering in two, or deflecting off harmlessly. However, the chance of a lucky one hitting the armor fold underneath one of their joints was still a dangerous possibility.

"Go on forward! We'll cover you." Jane barked,

The three imperials armed with heavy weapons began pouring fire into the trees where the arrows came from. Thousands of bolts shirked like banshees over the whine of the rotary guns, ripping and tearing into the shrubbery with such intensity that the wood around burned in a blaze. Shrieks and death cries followed as the plasma bolts did their gresley work. Explosions followed as the three man team began throwing grenades into mix. Explosions arced high and wide, sending multitudes of Orc in the clearing around in smoking heaps.

Position by position, the trio cleared out over the course of several minutes. Those not torn apart by fire or fragmentation found their cover utterly obliterated. Exposed, the sunlight forced them into a run for the nearest piece of cover… only to join their comrades in pieces.

Finally they made it to the door to the trench net work, Jaing banged on the rebuilt door.

"This is Jaing of the Imperial Special Forces Brigade, we're here to help you!"

Viridian saw Du, instantly groaning at that.

"Oh great," the Zabrak jedi sighed, pressing his fingers into his eyes, "we don't need this. Not now. Preferably not ever."

"Anything I should know?" Viridian asked.

"If I am right we encountered these guys in Bree more than a month ago. Janus killed one of them."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "They seem to be giving the orcs some trouble."

"Makes sense. So what are you going to do?"

After a few moments of contemplation, Viridian sighed in resignation, "Any help in this fight is useful, even if it is the damned Empire."

Viridian stood up and walked to the door and opened in and gave the Imps a stern glare, "You want to help, eh?"

Niwen suddenly stepped forward, drawing a look of surprise from the young Jedi.

"Please I have information that could save your life, I am…" she began.

"Niwen," Viridian finished, greatly surprising them.

"How do you know my name? You don't look like a Dunedain... in fact, you look like…"

"I know your father," Viridian interrupted, too happy to let her finish "I have been traveling with him for over a month. He's been looking for you for ten years, he's here in the city! Come in quickly!"

Niwen's eyes filled with tears as she and the Imps ran in with their equipment. The last to enter was Jane; staring at Viridian behind his helmet. Viridian was too focused on Niwen to care.

"M-my father is here?" she hiccuped, "W-where?"

"He's in the city getting ready to come out here should it be necessary."

"You're all in danger!" Niwen exclaimed, getting to why she was there, her eyes wide in utter desperation, "the Yuuzhan Vong, they're going to fly a transport full of a new and monstrous breed of orc and troll! They are much stronger than these rabble and can fight in the sun."

Viridian's eyes widened and he turned to the other warriors in the trench who had looks of horror on their faces.

"Gandalf, Saruman, and Elrond are in the city itself, ready to defend it with some of the best warrior's Rivendell, Lorien, and the Dunedain have to offer, and a few of my fellows are in there as well," he said retorted, mostly to reassure himself, and turned to the Imperials, "If you have any heavy weapons, please go to the city and prepare to defend it."

"I'll handle this," Jane answered, then beckoned to Niles and Dex, "Niles, Dex, you're with me. Bring one of the MDU's. Jaing, Keen, Alaya, set up two bikes to function as sentry turrets to help free up the numbers here, set up two in the gate house, We'll take the last two, and set up an anti infantry turret on the MDU and hold this point as long as you can!"

"Yes Captain!" they replied, and set about to work. Viridian observed the Imperials in their movements, feeling their individual presence and emotional signature. Each of them, save one, did not feel vindictive or malevolent... which didn't really surprise the Young Jedi. Sure, he could feel some general anger they directed at Janus, and after he found out why that made sense. But their iron discipline override everything else. Viridian swallowed on the last Imperial. His hateful spirit shook him, but he also found it... familiar.

'But why, where did I sense that before?' Viridian thought to himself, 'two of them were clones and that dark presence is a clone.'

Than Viridian's thoughts drifted to the leader, his presence was that of… compassion and understanding. Viridian even sensed a desire from him to protect him.

'Why would a captain of an Imperial spec ops squad want to protect me, a Jedi 'traitor'?' he asked himself, then his eyes widened when the thought came to him. Wasting no time he looked down the trench just in time to see the Imperials turn the corner.

"JANE!" Viridian shouted, getting everyone's attention in the trench. The captain stopped short in his tracks and turned to him.

Jane signed at him, 'May our next meeting come swiftly, and stay safe little brother.'

Viridian shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes; bolting down the length of the trench and tackled the man in a hug, "No, you aren't getting away from me that easily!"

Jane removed his helmet, revealing the family resemblance and returned the hug warmly and tightly, "I am so happy that you are safe. I… I'd hoped and prayed and pleaded to anyone who would listen that you survived, and you have!"

"Barely," Viridian muttered, shaking his head, "I've lost so many friends, some of whom I call my brothers and sisters... now I'm a traitor, forever doomed to be hunted."

"I will not allow anything to happen to you," Jane said fiercely, a burning shine to his eyes, "I will fight tooth and nail to keep you safe."

"You can try Jane," Viridian shuddered, "but I can't come home. No matter how much I want to, not until they stop labeling the Jedi as enemies."

Jane sighed sadly, "Mom and Dad miss you terribly. They're… worried sick."

Viridian pulled away and sniffled slightly, "I would love to continue this discussion Jane, but we have an enemy to fight and there is a cloud cover rolling in."

Jane looked up and cursed, "Damn it, I thought you lot interrupted him!"

"He must have started over in a different location!" Alaya called back.

"Who?" Viridian asked.

"Some scumbag named Arthinor," Jane snarled, he saw Viridian's eyes widen then narrow, "you know him?"

"Ran into him on our way back to Rivendell."

"Captain!" Niles called, "We must get ready!"

Jane nodded, "Go on ahead! I'll catch up!"

He turned to Viridian as soon as they disappeared through the gate houses; placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay safe, little Brother." Jane told him and put his helmet on; taking his weapon and heading through the gate house.

Viridian could sense a cloud of hatred boring into him from behind him. He turned to the source and saw the hate-filled Imperial looking at him with that faceless helmet, his presence unnerved him.

"Can I help you?" Viridian asked some anger leaking into his tone.

The clone looked ready to say something, but just shook his head and turned down the trenches.

Viridian turned to the female trooper, "What's his problem?"

"He has problem with you, Jedi… he's a clone he fought in the war... under the Jedi general Krell."

Viridian winced at that, "Ouch, that sucks no matter what."

Despite Viridian's hatred of clones even he could understand why the clones under Krell's command tend to hate Jedi, but something about this clone seemed to go even further beyond that.

"Save your pity, Jedi." Keen spat disdainfully.

"I have no pity for clones… or for you," Viridian responded, simply and walked back to the front. All the while Keen glared at his back.

Glorfindel stood at the ready, "I am pleased that you have been reunited with your family, not many get that luxury."

"He's only a part of that family, Glorfindel, I have yet to see everyone else."

"My thoughts and prayers are with them Viridian."

The Orc horn rang, signalling the launching of their second wave. The reverberating sound of oak breaking echoed through the trench lines as Cleagor brought his hammer upon the door again. The orcs ran in as predicted, but this time they had the help of their extragalactic allies: the Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Gesturing, their snake staffs opened their mouths in the direction of their attackers. Almost immediately Viridian, Du, and Glorfindel brought their shields to bear and the liquid hit the bronze plates with a loud hiss... and slid down them harmlessly. Viridian quick drew his blaster pistol and began dropping the Vong Warriors with headshots. However, for each one felled, three took his place…. And even more were pouring through the door.

"Du!" Viridian called, "Spear!"

Du nodded and pulled up their three spears again and like the night before, began impaling droves of orcs and Vong into the mud totten ground.

Alaya had just finished setting up the anti infantry turret, and no sooner than its target computer came on line than the first wave of attackers came into range. Crimson fire began pouring into the hordes below, ripping and tearing them to pieces like a meat grinder.

Jaing gave two of the elves a little crash course on how to fire the Speeder Bike's main blasters and aim them properly. Soon, more orc and Vong found their way into the killing field, and the combined fire of three turrets turned dozens at a time into smoldering chars.

"So… the captain of the squad is your brother," Du began, "What are the odds of that?"

"I have no idea, but I am happy he is alive and well," Viridian mused, "he and I fought alongside each other on Ord Mantell during the Clone Wars... he was not happy with the Jedi that they sent a 12 year old into battle."

"We all volunteered though," Du stated, "you, Daniel, Kes, Xey, and I all volunteered to go to war because we felt we had to."

"It was a tough time for the Order, that was for sure," Viridian sighed, "we lost a lot of Jedi on Geonosis. If it wasn't for that we probably wouldn't have had to fight until later."

"True… but we wouldn't have the combat experience we do now, and that has been a boon for these dark times." Du pointed out morbidly.

"So us going to war at that age was a blessing in disguise eh?" Viridian mused to himself, "it's a miracle we survived."

"Indeed, do you ever feel like, that we're being tested for… something?" Du asked.

"You mean by the Force or by Iluvatar?" Viridian asked.

"Both, I mean do you think that we are meant to do something... and that this is to test us for that?"

Viridian hummed in thought, "That could be... but if that's the case, what is the test preparing us for?"

Glorfindel and Thorin were listening to the conversation with interest.

"Perhaps, for a greater threat." Thorin suggested.

"Or perhaps to test your conviction and your dedication to your morals and beliefs." Glorfindel supplied.

"That could be it." Viridian agreed, "or maybe the Jedi are being chastised for our failings and arrogance."

"Perhaps." Du sighed sadly, "and maybe we can rebuild the Order into something greater."

Viridian smiled, he loved that idea, "I hope that one day we get to see it happen."

Du nodded in agreement and watched as the orc rabble charged into the plasma fire like lemmings run off a cliff.

Janus sat against the wall of the trench, 'that explains the vision.' he thought to himself.

"Janus almost killed Jane in Bree." Du said.

Janus stood up straight and began to hurriedly explain, "I had no idea who he was! I was ready to do it. But I had a vision of you two fighting side by side and it made me stop."

Viridian placed a hand on Janus's shoulder in assurance, "Calm down, Janus. It's all right. I don't blame you, and you showed restraint, so thank you."

Abruptly the guns stopped firing, Viridian swallowed in worry and turned to look down the trench and narrowed his eyes.

Viridian, Du, and Janus glared down the trench away unnerved by the sudden silence.

"Jasmine." Viridian said seemingly to nothing, "Can you see what's going on? Why have the Orcs have stopped charging?"

Viridian felt something pat him on the shoulder twice and he shivered, nearly jumping out of his skin. He hated when she did that. Just cause you could use the Force to turn invisible didn't mean you should play tricks on people.

'Like you have room to talk,' he reminded himself.

Jasmine crept along the trenches, stepping over the bodies; careful not to disturb them lest she be caught by someone watching the trenches for any sign of activity. She came to the broken door and peered out; her eyes widened when she saw a Yuuzhan Vong Phalanx approaching the door with some kind of shield made of same Crustaceans that their armor was made of… with that, they could push their way through their line! She ran back through the trench to warn the others.

Jasmine came sprinting around the corner nearly startling the defenders that didn't know she was there, "They are using these shields made of the same material as their armor! they are marching in a phalanx formation!"

"And that's bad why?" Jaing asked.

"The crustacean the armor is made of can take blows from our lightsabers, and a blaster!" Viridian said his voice troubled, "Do you think we can hold them if they do this?"

"... I don't know." Jaing admitted.

"Let's play it safe and fall back into the gate house, and make our stand there." Viridian said quickly, "I will get Jak and hold them off."

Jaing nodded, "Keen go with him!"

Keen nodded stiffly and begrudgingly; following the Jedi to the other side of the trench network where Jak was.

Viridian skidded to a stop in front of Jak's group, "We're abandoning the trench! We need to hold off the Orcs and Vong while our men fall back to the gate house."

The mandalorian nodded in understanding and primed his pistols in preparation.

"Sounds good to me."

The Jedi, Mandalorian, and Storm Trooper prepared to meet the phalanx. First, Keen rolled a grenade underneath the shields; blowing apart the first and second lines, but the others kept coming! As they flooded in, Keen and Jak began hurling bolts at the shields with their blasters; slowing down the unit of Zealots and keeping the advancing formation bunched up. Then, as soon as the Vong came through the door, Viridian ripped the rock hard dirt undergrowth from the ground and began launching chunks at the Vong; causing them to fall on their backs, but regardless of what they did they just kept coming! Slowly, but surely, they gained ground. As soon as the group made it within sight of gatehouse, Jaing waved them over; signalling that everything had been set up.

"Go!" Viridian shouted as Jak, Keen and he ran for the gate. Jak dove in first, followed by Keen. When Viridian reached the gate, Keen suddenly turned with a snarl. He clenched him by his shirt, and threw him over his head a good 15 feet through the door. Viridian landed with a thud, rolling head over heel back into the trench line. As he grunted and got back to his feet, nursing a welt forming on the top of his head, he heard a loud _clang_ as Keen destroyed the chain-harness holding the counterweight and caused the portcullis to collapse, effectively sealing him outside.

"YOU BASTARD!" Viridian shouted as he grasped at the portcullis, "Why did you do that?!"

The clone took off his helmet, and Viridian backed off in shock upon seeing the face of Jango Fett with two cybernetic eyes glaring at him with their red glare.

 _(Flashback)_

 _Vese Allie dropped to the ground in a wretched heap, her body as cold and still as the tiled floor beneath her. Viridian stared in utter horror at the body that once had laughed and loved, smiling and blessed. He'd felt numb, the sounds of the battlefield and slaughter of his brothers and sisters becoming mute and void. All that was, and that would be, was him… and her. Then he heard the laugh. The maniacal, soulless laugh that filled him with such terrible rage that his body, his mind, his vision, his very soul-was consumed by a raging inferno as hot as a sun. He clenched his fists, bearing his teeth in a scream. He leapt at the monster that killed her, calling her fallen lightsaber to his free hand as he did so, its viridian fire a mere extension of his rage. He swung wildly like a rabid dog, driven by blinding ire rather than iron discipline. Keen bobbed and weaved, backing and dodging as Viridian kept coming at him. Foam formed at the boys mouth, his eyes become as pitch as black. Then, in the blinding green wave, the viridian colored blade cleaved through his visor, his eyes exposed. His crimson, ruby red photoreceptors... like a droid in a clone's body; glaring at him like a mirror reflection, his own hatred and fury staring right back at him._

 _(End Flashback)_

Viridian's voice gradually became a growl as he spoke his next word, "Y-you!"

His face contorted into a glare and he could feel the darkness digging its icy fingers into his soul; screaming out at him to kill this monster to take revenge! This was countered by another, calmer saged voice, demanding justice, not revenge. Though, oddly enough they both agreed on the result... just not the method to achieve said result.

"Yes… me." Keen snarled with a twisted smile, "I have been looking forward to this day where we'd meet again, Jedi. I wanted to kill you myself, but sadly, your traitorous brother still can control me. So, I'll have to settle for them killing you."

Viridian glanced behind him and saw Cleagor on the other end of the trench way grinning at him, Viridian turned back to Keen.

"I promise you, Keen, I will survive this battle. Then I will find you… and I will kill you."

Keen grinned "You can try, Jedi," then backed into the next chamber.

Viridian turned around to see Cleagor staring at him in anticipation.

"Oi! You done talking to whoever that was? I prefer to stab you in the face."

Viridian glared at him, "Shut up and fight!"

He wasn't in the mood for banter; he was too angry to care. All that he was focused on was ending this battle, then killing Keen.

Cleagor grinned, "I am Cleagor the Hammer of Gundabad."

"I don't care." Viridian snarled as he reached for his saber, only to find it was not there, 'damn it he must have taken it during our fight with the Vong Phalanx,' with this in mind, Viridian drew Ringel. The elven sword glowed its sapphire blue in the orcs presence: one of its many magical properties, Gandalf had explained.

The Hammer of Gundabad planted his spear in the ground; his Wolf head hammer in hand and approached the Jed cautiously. Viridian mirrored him, coming within three yards of each other. Viridian checked his, and the orcs back, noticing that the Vong had backed off and were not going to interfere in this honor duel. In fact, they killed one such orc that tried to rush into attack him, skewering him right through his chest with a spear.

'So they respect the idea of a one on one fight.' Viridian noted to himself, 'I might be able to exploit that.'

The Hammer and the Jedi stared at eachother for a moment, sizing up each other. Then, Viridian dropped into a classic Djem-so stance, his hands gripping the blade above his head like Samurai of old. Cleagor matched him, the head of his hammer pointed at his opponent. They circled slowly, like wolves over a kill. Then, the orc stopped in his tracks, switching the hammer sideways… then he charged. The ground thundered with his footfalls as he bellowed his war cry. The shadow of the seven foot orc descended upon him, and Viridian charged to meet him. Then the hammer rose high in the air, the air screaming at the damnable weight as the orc brought the hammer down!

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.**

 **I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter: The Hammer of Gundabad! And the fighting Uruk hai.**


	18. Hammer of Gundabad the Fighting Uruk Hai

**AN: Hi everyone, here's a new chapter, I am having a bit of drama in the thing called real life at the moment, but fret not I shall continue to churn out more of these chapters for both my stories.**

 **Disclaimer: The tales of Arda belong to J.R.R Tolkien, Star wars belongs to George Lucas**

 **Chapter 17 (the Hammer of Gundabad, and the fighting Uruk Hai.)**

Viridian sidestepped the blow as the hammer slammed into the ground, splashing up dirt and rubble with a loud _thud!_ Viridian quickly retaliated, slashing across the orcs bicep with a flesh wound; blood arcing high and wide from the attack. Cleagor roared in pain before backhanding the young jedi away like a fly.

Viridian rolled with the blow and came up to his knee; blade held ready. Cleagor however did not press his advantage yet, rather examining the extent of his wound. Viridian took the time to assess his opponent: judging that with the hammer slowing the Orc considerably, he could gain an advantage and win. In his peripherals, he eyed the Vong that were watching the fight. 'I won't even need to use the force to beat him. But what will happen after I win?'

Something to worry about later as the so called 'Hammer of Gundabad' came after him roaring in blood fury. Viridian dodged the blow, rolling forward and slashing a trailing scar up the massive orc's leg as he did so; cutting through skin and muscle with some measured difficulty.

The Orc screamed and swung parallel with the ground, causing Viridian to drop. The hammer, however, caught some unfortunate Vong straight to the chest; breaking their crab armor and cracking the ribs underneath all the while sending them flying into the wall.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Die!" Cleagor bellowed.

Viridian righted himself and charged, kicking in Cleagor's wounded leg with a force enhanced strike. The Orc dropped to a knee; Viridian rearing back and punched him in the solar plexis, causing his adversary to cough up blood and throw up. Viridian than uppercut to his chin causing the orc to fall over on his back; leaving him broken on the ground. Viridian then walked around to his head and raised Ringle in an executioner's stance.

Cleagor glared at Viridian, "I ain't finished with you Jedi!"

Viridian's eyes tighten sternly, "But I am finished with you, Orc," he swung the Sword down and removed the orcs head from his shoulders.

The response from the Orcs was instantaneous. They howled like maddened wolves into the clouded night sky; roaring in unbridled, uncontained fury. Viridian's ear drums scream in pain, causing him to wince slightly.

The Orcs charged him, clambering over the Vong, and even killing some of them. Viridian seeing the bloodthirsty horde did the only thing he could think of: he sent out an omni directional telekinetic wave that sent the orcs off their feet. Taking the opportunity, Viridian ran to the gate. He looked back, the Orcs and Vong hot on his tail. He didn't have time to open the portcullis.

He turned to face them, thinking 'So this is it.'

Virdian however wouldn't die without putting up one hell of a fight. He seized several of the orcs with the Force and threw them into the Vong; causing many to stumble and fall. He did everything he could to hinder them and it was working. Some of the Vong attempted to shoot him with their staff's venom. Viridian grabbed an orc and put him in the path of the venom, tearing into the Orc with utterly agonizing pain.

"Viridian!" Du's voice sounded behind him, Viridian did not turn around, he fell back and rolled backwards through the portcullis that was open courtesy of Du, as soon as he was through the cullis fell to the ground with a clang, Viridian rolled to his feet and laughed.

"Du, I could kiss you right now!"

"Please don't!" Du begged jokingly, pushing him away.

"I won't I don't swing that way anyway," Viridian chuckled before his eyes hardened, "where is Keen?!"

Du could feel the dramatic shift in mood from Viridian and he swallowed slightly. The anger and rage practically irradiated from him like a black cloud. It unnerved him when he was like this. The last time he was like this was when Xey was captured by the Knights.

"We are holding him," he began, cautiously, "we instantly knew what he did," then before he could finish, Viridian brushed past him and rushed back into the second chamber. Du clambered after him, attempting but failing to grab him as he shouted, "Viridian wait!"

Viridian didn't hear his friend as he ran into the chamber and saw Keen tied to a pole.

"Heh," he chuckled softly, "you made it out. Impressive… for a kid."

Driven by rage Viridian ran up to him and slammed his fist across his face with a snarl. Keens head snapped to the left, and Viridian grabbed his fist which throbbed more than it should have. It… it'd felt almost like he'd punched metal! Viridian shook his hand off, glaring at the clone as he felt Janus and Du hold him back.

"You test tube grown bastard!" Viridian shouted,

Keen just chuckled at the insult, "Oh please. Krell had worse insults than that."

"I will do what he should have done and kill you!" Viridian shouted, Jak stepped in front of him.

"Viridian, he may have kept you from getting in here and I get it you're angry but you need to calm down." Jak said.

Viridian sneered at Jak, "Oh, I'm not going to kill him for that! I'm gonna kill him for his crimes in the Temple!"

"Are you going to hunt down every single clone involved in the raid?" Jak asked unbelievingly.

Viridian glared at Jak, "Are you trying to piss me off? Because, Jak, I recommend that you back off before I turn my wrath on you."

Suddenly, Glorfindel was before him, his eyes boring into the young man and putting him in his place with a coldness he'd never felt before. He then placed a hand on his shoulder, asking: "What did this Keen do during this raid?"

Viridian felt tears well up his eyes, "That **thing** killed non combatants! Little children that couldn't defend themselves!"

The three dwarven members of the company gasped having remembered his story.

"He's the one?" Kili asked swallowing.

Glorfindel turned to the Clone who was smiling in satisfaction at the pain and anger the young Jedi was going through. The golden elf turned away from him in disgust and back to Viridian.

"You must wait till after the battle for justice where the two of you will settle this in the arena." Glorfindel stated firmly.

Viridian let out a breath, "I can live with that."

"I look forward to it Jedi." Keen grinned like a madman.

"And I look forward to putting you down like the mad dog you are!"

Viridian could feel the anger from Jak burning in his direction, Viridian sighed he understood why Jak was angry with him, 'I will talk to him later.' he thought to himself.

In the other chamber, the orcs we're straining to lift the Portcullis. They managed to pick it up a little, until the Elves felled one of them and forcing them to retreat again. Quickly though, the Orcs and Vong rallied and charged the gate again, despite the defenders taking the Elves que and pelting them in arrows. Though they would pay dearly in lives, the monsters determination would see them through… eventually.

Viridian went deathly pale and stiff, so did Du, Janus and Jasmine, as they sensed a mass of hatred and malice approach them at rapid speed over mountains.

"They're here."

Du turned to Glorfindel, "Can you keep this front without us?"

Glorfindel just nodded. Afterall the Orcs couldn't lift the door in time before they were cut down in droves. Soon enough, they would have to begin shifting away the bodies just to get at it.

Viridian and Du ran into the city, looking for Balin. After a few moments, they found the old Dwarf making his way from the armory.

"Viridian, boy, what's the matter? You look like you faced a wraith," the kindly elder dwarf asked.

Viridian took a deep breath, "Ballin, do you have any bombs we could use?"

Balin nodded and gestured to the Wagon next to him, "Your friend Jak gave me a few pointers to improve them. They should make short work of whatever the orcs have to throw at us."

Viridian nodded gratefully as Du and he began to take several arm fulls of the primitive explosives. They ran towards Elrond's house where the mass of anger and hatred was coming from in earnest.

"Where are you going?!" Balin called after them by then it was futile they were already out of earshot.

Viridian and Du lept onto the roof of the house, the explosives were orbiting around them thanks to their use of the force.

"There it is!" Du exclaimed, pointing at the transport coming towards them. At least Viridian thought it was a transport the thing was an organism after all. This reminded him of a mission report he read some time ago... in fact all the Vong's ships reminded him of something he just couldn't quite place it.

That didn't matter now. Viridian and Du lit their bombs threw their payload at the ship, the bombs detonating and ripping chunks out of the ship, and it crashed into the yard behind Elrond's house. Viridian and Du felt nothing reverberate through the Force but they heard a low and deep agonized moan. The two Jedi looked at each other. The creature must be suffering but because of its dissociation with the Force they couldn't tell. On a more positive note, the mass of hatred had been greatly reduced to less than half of what it was.

The Jedi duo nodded to each other and jumped into the back courtyard. The courtyard was well decorated with a brick patio, a fountain with a remarkably life like statue of a swan that seemed to be frozen in take off, spewing water from its mouth, into the fountain never ending.

The transport crashed into the grass area. Viridian and Du drew their lightsabers and held them at the ready in a shi cho stance. For a long moment, there was silence save the pain-filled moans of the creature and the hums of the bronze and viridian lightsaber blades.

The next thing that happened deeply disturbed the Jedi. The living ship began to shriek and cry out in agonizing pain. Viridian felt the urge to rush forward and attempt to comfort the suffering creature but he couldn't for two reasons. One, he could not sooth its pain through the force, and two, he knew that the new orcs and trolls inside it were the cause and they were breaking their way out and inevitably killing the creature at the most, or severely injuring it at least.

The tough shell of the creature dented outward the creature's cries grew worse until they were unbearably loud. Viridian and Du clenched their teeth. Viridian actually felt moisture in his eyes. He was surprised at that, he thought he had lost his capacity for compassion, and empathy for the suffering of his enemies before he came to the realization: this creature was not his enemy, it was a war beast bred to fight for the Vong sure, but it was still a living creature an unfortunate animal caught in an unfortunate war and was now being literally torn apart from the inside as its occupants discarded it like a parasite discards its host.

A large fist that could only belong to a troll finally punched through the exterior and the creature released a loud unnatural scream of pain as the large brute tore the outer layer apart, making a hole large enough for it to step through as it finished. Viridian could only hear the pained gasps coming from the creature. Then they heard no more from it.

The troll was slightly larger than the ones Viridian met at the campfire, or the ones that they had all fought in front of the secret entrance. It's body seemed to have a few spikes protruding from its shoulders and just behind its elbows with large claws on its fingers. It had razor sharp teeth and it roared into the air upon being released from the creature. The Jedi also noticed that the troll had no armor on, in fact it was completely nude. Viridian remembered that there on some worlds long before they developed space travel back when they fought with swords, and other ancient weapons some cultures didn't wear clothing in battle. It was meant to be intimidating... and uncomfortable.

Viridian and Du couldn't have cared less about their enemies state of dress. They were too angry to care after listening to that creature's last moments. It made them realize that if they didn't stop these monsters that they would do the same to everyone in Rivendell: Du, Janus, Thorin, Bilbo, the Dwarves, Elrond, Jane, Kes, everyone.

"No." Viridian said out loud, "I won't let it."

He deactivated his saber, threw it at the troll right into its roaring mouth, maintaining a telekinetic grip on it… and activated the blade inside the creature's throat, the viridian blade sprouted out of the side of its neck. Viridian then spun the blade around in a circle decapitating the creature before summoning the weapon back to him.

For a long moment there was silence. Then there was a thunderclap, followed by a little dull thud, then another. Soon there was a roar as thousands upon thousands of raindrops fell to the ground. Viridian and Du's lightsabers began to let off steam as some of the raindrops hit the energy blade causing it to evaporate instantly. Lightning flashed, blinding the duo for a half a second when they saw it.

A humanoid stood on the carcass of the troll that Viridian killed. He was armed with a bone club and wore the same armor as the vong warriors. He was tall almost as tall as Celebion, lean with thick gray and sallow muscles and scars that ran the length of his body. All in all, the man looked like a man who'd stepped out of Hell and looking for a reunion. As he jumped off the troll and strutted towards, emanating a domineering confidence that made the two Jedi shudder despite their thick clothes. He came to a stop just before the brick Patio, the rain a dull roar in the background now.

Viridian swallowed slightly. The newcomer had some strength in the force it was strong but untapped like a wild untamed animal, looking to lash out at whatever it came against.

The creature chuckled his voice deep and guttural, and he said, "We are the fighting Uruk Hai, the mightiest warriors of the master." he grinned at the young jedi, baring his teeth, "surrender now and I may let you live as slave to Him."

Viridian was surprised that the orc was actually talking to him, asking for an unconditional surrender. He narrowed his eyes at the orc, the rain continuing to pound the area.

"Not on your wretched life, you foul creature! The people here would rather die than give up their freedom to your master!" Viridian snarled.

The Uruk Hai seemed pleased and he began to laugh, "Good, It saves me the trouble of taking prisoners!"

The Uruk hai screamed as he swung his club, Viridian raising his saber to catch the club and cut through it. To his shock and dismay, the bone held up to the saber, and Viridian felt his arms quake from the blow. Du called upon the force and pushed the Uruk away from them to gain a little breathing room.

"This orc is not like anything we have faced before Viridian." Du said in shock.

"I have a feeling it's going to get worse." Viridian agreed, shifting into the classic Djem So stance.

Du adopted the Aturu form, the Uruk-Hai got to his feet and held out his hand with the palm towards them, Du suddenly found himself thrown off his feet completely unprepared for the TK attack.

Viridian's eyes widened in disbelief, "Impossible!"

"The pain lovers have granted us many gifts both physically and mentally."

Viridian's eyes widened at the Implications, "You can learn faster! The longer a fight goes on, the stronger you get!"

The Uruk grinned, "Very good Jedi, I have been looking forward to facing you."

Viridian's eyes narrowed, he was bluffing, he could sense the other Uruk hai their strength in the force was pretty miniscule compared to theirs barely a match for low level acolytes, this one was one of their champions he would be a true challenge in the metaphysical. "You talk too much, show me the power of the mightiest warriors of Sauron, then!"

"With pleasure Jedi!" the Uruk charged the bone club and lightsaber met with a clap of thunder!

 **AN: well I hope you all enjoyed, special thanks to my friend Jacob he's been helping me with grammar issues.**

 **Well I hope to see you all next time in, 'The Champions of Rivendell'**


	19. The Champions of Rivendell

**AN: hello everybody, here is a new chapter, I have some news… after this I will be focusing on rewriting my earlier chapters to the current standard and hopefully make it less likely for you guys to want to rip your eyes out at my early attempts at writing, that and I will also be focusing more on my other project, fret not I will still keep this one up I just would like to get the other one back on track.**

 **Disclaimer: the tales of Arda belong to Tolkien, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and Disney...**

 **Chapter 18 (The Champions of Rivendell)**

Viridian met the Uruk-Hai blow for blow, steel against steel, mind against mind. The first round of engagements left both warriors painting, circling each other like wolves as they studied with measured respect and hatred. Viridian had found the Uruk-Hai to be his equal. Both had pressed for an advantage only for the other to counter it perfectly. Over and over, this cycle had lasted until it dragged into a war of attrition. This was something Viridian knew he could not win; he could not hope to match the beast's vitality long enough to ensure his victory.

He knew it, and so did the Uruk-Hai, who grinned at him wolfishly as he brandished his weapon in his direction. He sighed. He had only two options. He could bring to bear… the final technique that Depa had taught them all, the one she had warned against unless in their most desperate of moments. Vaapad.

Viridian winced in his mind. He dared not to use the form, for out of all the practitioners of the form only one had not fallen to the darkness. And that had not been Master Bilaba.

That left the other one: resort to the unorthodox.

Viridian raised his hand forward in a gesture to force push, and the Uruk mirrored him to absorb the attack. Suddenly, Viridian pulled back, confounding the Uruk-hai when something struck him hard and heavily over his head. The blow stunned him, causing him to stumble forward like a drunkard, Viridian striking forward to impale the Orc upon his blade.

With a snarl, the Uruk-Hai swatted away the blade with his armored hand and slammed his fist into Viridian's nose, breaking it and sending him tumbling to the floor.

Viridian found himself stunned, struggling to focus let alone rise. What astounded him though was that he wasn't dead yet. The Uruk-Hai stood there, eyes wide in disbelief.

"I have killed strong men in my time… you are the first to withstand that blow," then the Uruk smirked, "it would be a shame to slay such a warrior so quickly."

"Gee, thanks," Viridian groaned and stood up to his feet blood pouring down his face, as he eyed the Uruk through blurry vision, "but I'm not done yet."

The Uruk grinned, "Good, I want to see everything you've got!"

Viridian gritted his teeth and breathed through his teeth, "Come on, then!" Viridian adopted the Ataru form, mixed with some Makashi after Shaak ti. Then he began to move, cutting at the gaps in the armor; dodging and weaving around the Uruk as he tried to hit him all the while he score minor hits on the small chinks in his armor.

Bleeding from the dozen wounds that lined much of his arms and legs, the dark monster roared and blasted Viridian with a push. The blast caught the young jedi off guard and he was sent flying back. As he bounced off the ground, Viridian called upon the Force to cushion the inevitable impact and slow himself down but he still smashed into the pillar back first. The pillar broke inwards with a loud snap.

Kes, Xey, and Ulra whirled from their defenses, seeing Viridian flying into the ward at an incredible speed, Viridian landed in the middle of the floor in a heap.

"VIRIDIAN!" Kes shouted in horror as she winced getting up.

A pained chuckle escaped from his lips, the women watching as Viridian put his hands underneath him and stood up, his arms shaking with the effort of it. He just made it to his feet as the Uruk barreled into the ward, the orcs eyes widened in disbelief.

"I think I shall keep you around if you can survive that and still be standing."

Virdiain began to laugh in a slight hysteria, "You honestly think that you can win this fight?" Viridian asked between fits of laughter.

"HO HAHAHA" the Orc guffawed, "You still have enough steam in you to talk all that high and mighty? perhaps the Master could use you to run the steam engines!"

Something behind the Orc caught Viridian's attention and he smirked, "Who's laughing now?"

"... I am." the Uruk replied confused, before the world suddenly went upside down and black.

"Wrong answer." Viridian answered, and gave a salute to Du from behind the Orc.

The Zabrak Jedi chuckled a little, "Wow, he thrashed you about so much I am surprised you can stand after all that."

Viridian felt his legs give in slightly before Ulra caught him and sat him down.

"N-no, there are more in the ship!" Viridian protested, "Not as bad as him but at least a half dozen."

"After that beating you still want to go fight more?" Ulra asked surprised.

"It's my duty." Viridian responded, "I am willing to give my all to stop these things from killing everyone here."

"Even at the cost of your own life?" Kes asked him her voice overflowing with emotion. "You can barely stand!"

"I can handle it." Du assured him, "you stay here, get healed and rest."

The Zabrak turned and headed back to the dead ship to face the rest of the Uruk Hai.

The adrenaline finally wore off, and Viridian felt the pain flood his body, and he resisted the urge to cry out from it.

"Ulra? can you... do your thing and heal me please?" Viridian asked with effort.

The miraluka nodded, "Of course, it will take some time and a bit of concentration. Xey, can you cover me?"

The Echani nodded and turned to face the dangers to come, drawing her blue saber and holding it in the 'fool's guard' stance, her silver eyes narrowed in preparation all the while the force was ready to warn her of the incoming threat.

Du walked back to the patio with his bronze saber active. He strode on up to the troll carcase when the Uruks stormed out of the transport; six of them in total and they all turned their fury on him.

The six Uruk-Hai threw a collective force push at the young Zabrak Jedi. Du held his shoulder to it and let the wave washed over him and retaliated, sending several of the orcs off their feet. Du then lept into the air and brought his blade down into the head of one of the Uruks, nearly chopping it in two. He then spun and decapitated one as it stood up, then reaching out and crushing the third with a gesture of his hand before turning to face the other three.

Du held his saber in the Soresu stance, waiting for the orcs to make the move. They didn't disappoint. The Uruks all circled around him trying to break his guard. However, Du countered them by shifting his stance so that they were always in front of him and not surrounding him. Unable to force an opening, the orcs roared in frustration.

Du finally rushed forward, impaling the orc in the middle through the brain with a thrust through the eye. Then he swung round with the momentum and slashed the one advancing on his left across the throat, nearly decapitated. The third then charged him with a roar of retribution. Du merely sidestepped him and slashed neatly at the Uruk's ankles, bringing the beast to its knees. However, before he could finish it off, an axe to its head stole the opportunity in a heartbeat.

Du drew a breath, forcing himself to ease back into normalcy. He found he was breathing harder than normal: the battle was starting to take a toll on him. He then turned to his late-to-be saviors, "Thanks Wiglaf, Grate." he said to the human and dwarf gratefully.

"There is still more to do. The orcs have gotten through the first gate, but the second has slowed them down. The armies of Lindon will be here tomorrow as the gold haired one said." Grate told him.

"Where is Viridian?" Wiglaf asked looking around, "Did he fare well?"

"He's alive, the Uruk captain completely thrashed him, but he's alive." Du breathed as he walk to the medical ward before stopping short and turning to look up at the watchtower on the far side of the backyard.

Up on the top of the tower sat a dark figure a lightning bolt flashed behind it, Du could sense the darkness emanating from the figure and it seemed to be clothed in it. The figure stood up and with a grace to match some of the best ataru practitioner: jumped into the the yard, rolling as it landed before coming to its feet like a cat and standing to its full height. It was just short of the Dunedain, wearing a set of dark armor. Careful observation showed that the plates moved, revealing it to be the same living armor the Vong used. It was clad in a heavy black cloak that hung behind it; the helmet was sealed and revealed nothing of the warrior, he was slim compared to the average human.

"Who are you?" Du asked raising his blade in front of him.

The warrior said nothing. Rather, he looked to the three of them; his eyes pierced through each of them, like he was prying apart their minds and peering into their souls. With a snort, the warrior turned his back and wiped the blood from his sword. As it did this, it spoke with an aged but venerable spirit:

"You are the first Jed'dai I have ever seen. If that is the best you have to offer than its no wonder your order was wiped out. A pity. You are all little more than a bunch of pathetic Mon keighs."

Du's eyes hardened, "The hell you just say?"

The figure shook its head, "Look at this. His Mon Keigh brain can't process what I just said."

Du just smirked, "No, it's just that you have nothing worth hearing, you arrogant twat."

The Force screamed a warning at Du and he raised his barriers just in time for the telekinetic blast to wash over him and toss Wiglaf and Grate into the Medical ward with a crash. Du righted himself… then noticed that The Man in Black was using the Force to call something from the house. Something moved behind him and he ducked. A kite shield and lance made of a fine silver raced over his head and into the hands of The Man in Black. He assumed a Hoplite Stance, and chuckled:

"Come. I shall let my actions speak for me!"

He sweeped wide with the spear. Du parried the lance with his saber and found it to be lightsaber resistant, the plasma bouncing off the metal. The Warrior rushed forward and bashed the shield into Du, causing the Jedi jump back. Du then threw a push at the newcomer, sending the warrior back with the wave. However, the Warrior merely rolled with it and landed on his feet with cat like grace.

Du charged him and leapt over him to get behind him. The dark warrior threw a push and sent Du into the wall at high speed. Du hissed in pain as he rose back to his feet and glared at the dark warrior like a feral animal. He then lunged at him, seizing the warrior's leg like a wrestler and tripped him up; following up with a savage blow to the helm, striking him over and over again with force enhanced punches that began to cave in the warrior's helmet. With a roar unlike any other, the dark warrior struck back and tossed Du across the room in a crumbled heap.

"YOU FILTHY MON KEIGH!" he bellowed as he rose back to his feet, "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!"

"Nobody is invincible," Du spat, "not even you."

"RAGH!" the Warrior rushed forward and with a mighty yell impaled Du through the chest and pinned him to the tower wall; right where one of the Zabrak's hearts was. He hissed softly to the dying Jedi, "I will make sure your death is as painful as it can be!"

Then a crackle of electricity barked into the air as the currents based through the lance, ripping away at the Zabrak. Du's screams of pain tore through the air as he experienced the tortures of the warrior of the Dark Side. This went on for several minutes before the warrior backed off and looked ready to charge as if he was going to drive the lance all the way through his body. Du collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from his mouth, and smoke emanating from his battered, burned body. Then he felt something, something that made him look up, and he saw Xey in the distance behind him; mouthing, 'hold him.' Du at first was confused before he understood.

Du began to chuckle at the warrior, his throat choking on the blood building up down in his lungs, "You're pathetic...I… have felt... worse."

The dark warrior snarled, "You will not be so confident after I am finished with you."

Du smirked, "Well… then. You... need... a lesson... in **humility**!" With that, he he reached out with his hand and seized the warrior in a telekinetic grip! The warrior was surprised at the strength of the grip and worked to break free, but before he could a sickening crack was heard as Xey ran at full speed, assisted with the force, and slammed the warrior in the back like a linebacker. The blow destroyed the organic armor plates, and broke the warriors back; causing him to collapse to the ground in shock.

Xey ran up to Du and took hold of the spear, her face awash with fear suppressed by her iron discipline, "I am going to remove this, but I must assess the damage."

"D-don't," he choked, blood pooling from his mouth and nose, "it… pierced… my heart. Get... Ulra. Hurry!"

Xey nodded and turned to find a new figure standing over the disabled one, looking down at its broken body. She called the silver shield to her free hand and held it infront of her ready for a fight.

The figure was taller than the other one; wearing the same dark vong armor and a helmet that covered its head and face with a dark purple membrane. He carried a pole axe with the haft made of some kind of corral.

The figure completely ignored the Jedi and turned to the downed warrior, "Orais, you weren't supposed to engage the Mon keigh. It is not our time!"

"They... are lesser... than... I. I... was winning!" Orais groaned.

"Until you didn't. You were bested by the **female** ," he sneered, "hmm, you are a disappointment to the Morgorlug-Hai."

"Please... Asmodai," he begged, "please… another chance."

"You risked everything. You are impatient. I can not allow this anymore." Asmodai held his hand over the crippled warrior.

"NO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Orais screamed as bolts of electricity shot down from Asmodai's hands and vaporized him with disturbing ease. After that Asmodai turned to the Jedi.

"We shall meet properly, and thou will come to fear the Morgorlug-Hai." With that, Asmodai disappeared from sight and vanished.

Xey kept her guard up, just in case he was just using an advanced form of stealth. Her senses on high alert, she gritted her teeth and turned to Du.

"I'm pulling you off the wall." she told him, and used the force to dislodge the spear and the zabrak and she guided him back to the healing ward

"Ulra!" Xey shouted. Ulra 'looked' up from Viridian, whose eyes widened in horror upon seeing the spear run through his best friend's chest.

"By the force." Kes muttered quietly.

"The spear pierced one of his hearts. Please he needs help!" Xey cried.

"I will do what I can, but really I think Elrond should be the one to heal him." Ulra stated, nervously biting her lips a bit uncertain in her abilities. She never had to heal something this severe before.

"Just do what you can, Viridian groaned, standing up, "I will go get Elrond."

"But I am not done with you yet!" Ulra exclaimed.

"I can go get Elrond, it's not that hard," Viridian argued, "do what you can to help Du."

"What about the strange warrior?!" Xey exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear, "He went invisible! I think we should stay together!"

Viridian turned to Xey, "What strange warrior?"

Xey launched into an explanation, speaking so quickly that Viridian almost didn't catch all of it.

"O-kay, a dark warrior jumped from the top of the tower, thrashed Du, then you slammed into his back at full speed, breaking his back, than a new guy appeared and killed the one that nearly killed Du, told you that we'd meet them properly at some point and we'd come to fear them, and they call themselves, the Morgorlug-Hai?" Viridian asked.

"YES!" Xey exclaimed.

Viridian nodded, "Okay, I will keep that in mind."

With that said Viridian left the safety of the ward to find Elrond, after running through the City, he found Jane, and Elrond speaking together.

"My lord Elrond!" Viridian called, catching the attention of the elf lord.

"Yes Viridian?" Elrond asked.

"Du and I stopped the transport but something happened. Du was attacked by an unknown dark warrior and his chest was pierced. Please, he needs your help!" Viridian cried breathlessly.

Elrond nodded, and began ran down the road to the healing ward.

"Viridian, why did you engage the drop ship?" Jane asked his brother.

"I sensed a mass of hatred. I wanted to stop it from reaching the city." Viridian answered.

"But… we had already fortified this position." Jane told him.

"What?" Viridian asked looking around and noticing the fortifications and elves armed with the spare blasters that Jane's squad had brought, "... oh." Viridian felt the urge to smack himself for his stupidity.

"So why did you engage the transport?" Jane asked again.

"I… I guess I panicked." Viridian answered honestly.

Jane sighed. This only reinforced his belief that kids should not be on the field of battle, but at the same time he tried to understand. He wasn't force sensitive like his brother. He could get that Jedi were able to sense something that would be lost on normal people.

"At least you managed to stop them. Just don't do it again."

"I won't… it nearly got my best friend killed."

Jane placed his hand on Viridian's shoulder in reassurance, "I know that feeling… but Viridian, Du made the choice to go with you, with me," he looked at his squad mates, "I am the captain of the squad, the lives of these brave men and women are my responsibility."

Viridian's face became hard as he turned to Jane, "I have a bone to pick with your squad member Keen, he prevented me from getting into the gate house, and he killed non combatants in the temple."

Jane pursed his lips, and Viridian noticed that Jane's signature became very angry, "I have had it with him. I am going to execute him."

"No I want to be the one to put him down." Viridian stated.

"... I can't let you do that." Jane said as he turned and walked away.

"He killed Vese!" Viridian shouted.

Jane stopped moving at that, he turned to Viridian to see tears pooling in his eyes.

"W-what?" Jane asked his voice cracking slightly.

"He killed Vese. I-I tried to get her out of the temple, but I couldn't get to her in time. I'm sorry, Jane. I couldn't save her." Viridian began to sob.

"I-I'm sure you did what you could." Jane told him shakily, as he pulled his younger brother into a hug, one to comfort the boy and himself.

The rest of the battle went smoothly the orcs didn't gain any more ground and the armies of Lindon came to wipe them out, they caught the orcs between the defenders in between them, at the end of the battle there were no fatalities on their sides only injuries ranging from minor to serious.

 **An: well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter I will be focusing on the rewrites of the earlier chapters fortunately I have the prologue and chapter one done, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help in this endeavor, I recommend you guys check his stuff out, and I will see you all in the next chapter, which I have yet to name.**

 **See Ya.**


	20. The Aftermath

**AN:hello everybody its been a while have been busy, working on my other story, been working on a colaberation with my fellow author and freind Jacob, and real life I've been trying to find a new job and all that, but enough about that lets continue this merry adventure.**

 **Disclaimer:I only own my characters**

 **The Aftermath**

Viridian sat on the steps leading to the medical ward, waiting for news from Gandalf, Elrond and Ulra as the trio worked to heal his best friend, Du. He thought back to what happened after he told his brother about Vese's death. Back to the moment when the pain rose from the depths to drag him back under its embrace.

 _(Flashback)_

" _I-I tried to g-get her out of the temple, but I couldn't. I am so sorry Jane I couldn't save her." Viridian said barely holding back any sobs._

 _Jane pulled Viridian into a fierce hug, "I-I am sure you did what you could." Jane assured him his own voice heavy with sadness._

" _I-I managed to get her body out of the temple, so that we can give her a proper send off with the rest of the family."_

 _Jane shook with grief, "T-thank you, Viridian."_

 _Jane pulled away from the hug and began to walk away to think. Viridian began walking back to the ward only to turn to see Balin behind him. Viridian tried to quell his grief as best he could._

" _Master Balin, good to see you." he said managing to hide most of his grief_

 _Balin gave a look of understanding, "Viridian, that girl meant far more to you then you are letting on. Who was she?" he asked sympathetically._

 _Viridian felt his lips quiver and his teeth clenched showing he was doing what he could to keep his mouth closed but the urge to let it out overpowered him and he let out a pained whimper, "She was-was my n-n-n-n-n-nniece. Jane's daughter."_

 _Viridian moved past Balin and ran to the medical ward he lept onto the roof of Elrond's house and just let out all his pain._

 _(End flashback)_

Viridian let out a shuddering breath. It had taken him an hour to calm down, and he came and sat down here waiting for news on his friend. Kes came out and sat next to him, worry wrapped on her face.

"How's he doing?" Viridian asked his voice raw, and cracked, his eyes red from crying.

Kes placed a hand on his shoulder, "He'll be alright, but he will need a new heart. He won't be able to fight the way he used to until he gets the implant," she sniffed "he's lucky to be alive. You both are."

Viridian buried his face in his hands, "I overreacted to the threat, and I nearly cost my best friend his life." He looked to Kes, "It's true what they say. Hindsight is twenty/twenty."

"It's like Master Yoda said all our actions have consequences. Sometimes you make a situation better by interfering. Others, you just make it worse, but this isn't your fault you were acting based on the information you had, you had no idea that they had set up the fortifications."

Viridian hummed in agreement.

Kes bit her lip nervously, "Viridian," she began getting his attention.

"Yes Kes?" he asked turning to face her, as soon as he did. She hugged him tightly shaking as she did so, Viridian composed himself and returned the hug. She whispered to him softly, closing her eyes with the weight of what she needed to say.

"I-I am done hiding my feelings. This battle, watching you all fight, and getting beaten to a pulp... I know you moved on, and I know I waited too long, and I am sorry for that."

Viridian held her closer to him, "My feelings for you were reignited after what happened at the pass.. But I am scared, though."

"I am too." Kes hiccuped, "I am done hiding my feelings. I feel something for you Viridian. I have ever since the the year before the war, and I would like to spend whatever time we have left exploring this relationship with you. Whether we die tomorrow or seventy years from now."

Viridian pulled away till the two were eye to eye, "I would like that." Viridian sighed as he rested his forehead against hers, "I would like that very much."

As the new couple was being formed, Jane stood on the wall overlooking the valley, his mind going back to when he first met Vese… his daughter.

 _(Flashback)_

 _The twenty year old Jane was putting away dishes with his mother along several other children of human and other non humans, for the Mallory matriarch and patriarch had adopted kids from all sorts._

" _Jessy," a masculine voice called in prompting the small group of five to turn to face the man in a wheelchair. After an unfortunate altercation with a dissatisfied customer three years prior, Jon Mallory had lost the ability to use his legs. Jane and his adopted brother Abel fought the man off but the damage had been done, "I have wonderful news. Viridian is coming home for the week."_

 _The woman smiled, happily, "Do you know when, Jon?" she asked._

" _Later today."_

 _Just then the doorbell to the store rang. Jane chuckled, "I will take care of it, father."_

" _Thank you, Jane."_

" _Who knows, it might be Viridian, and Master Vie." Able chuckled as he finished stacking the last dish._

" _We'll soon find out, won't we?" Jane grinned as he walked into the main shop area. He stopped short upon seeing the person in it: a Tholothian woman no older then him._

" _Hello, Jane," the woman greeted a bit nervously_

 _Jane snapped out of his stupor, "Hi Eile, how have you been?" he asked awkwardly._

" _I've been better, you look good."_

" _Been doing some mandatory military service. It's done me wonders."_

 _Eile nodded in agreement, "It has."_

 _Jane cleared his throat, "Can I help you with something?"_

" _I was hoping to talk to you."_

" _You have, so now what?" Jane asked somewhat harshly._

 _Eile looked away, "I know we didn't part on the best of terms."_

" _Best of terms?" Jane asked, "you left inexplicably, and left me a note saying that you never loved me."_

" _I never wrote such a note." Eile said._

 _Jane paused for a moment, "Wait, if you never left a note, then what..." he came to the realization, "Your father."_

" _I received a note from you saying the exact same thing."_

 _Jane thought about it for a moment, "Can I say that I never liked your dad."_

 _Eile chuckled, "Yeah, I hate him too."_

 _Jane sighed, "Eile if that is the case, why did it take you four years to come back?"_

" _My father wouldn't let me." Eile stated, "I did escape from him, but I didn't want to risk him coming to you and hurting you."_

 _Jane bowed his head, "I see."_

" _There is another thing."_

 _Jane looked back up at her, and she moved to the side. Jane looked down to see a little girl standing behind Eile, nervously clinging to her leg. She looked no older then four years old. Jane's eyes widened when he put two and two together and he looked to Eile as if to ask if the conclusion he came to was accurate._

 _Eile nodded, and got down to her knees to address the little girl, "Vese, it's alright don't be shy. He's a nice man."_

 _Vese peaked up at him, her brown eyes inquisitive as they studied him before she quickly buried her face into Eile's back again, "What if he doesn't like me?" she asked._

" _He is not like grandpa, Vese. Go ahead, introduce yourself. I am right here."_

 _Jane gulped and got down to eye level with her, as she came out of her comfort zone and came face to face with him._

" _Hi, I am Vese Allie, it's nice to meet you."_

 _Jane let out a breath as he held out his hand, "Hi Vese, I am Jane Mallory," he was tempted to tell her that he was her father, but he didn't want to rush it._

 _Vese shook her head, "Mommy said that your name was Daddy."_

 _Jane chuckled, "I am also that."_

(End flashback)

"Cap'n?" Nyles called, breaking Jane out of his reminiscing. He was glad he was wearing his helmet so that his squad couldn't see him crying, and that his Daughter's killer couldn't see it either. The mad clone was on his knees with his hands behind him, his glowing red eyes glaring at Jane.

"Hello, Cap'n," Keen spat, "more like traitor."

Jane stood to his full height and and walked down the steps to right in front of Keen who had been stripped of his armor so he was wearing only the undersuit, "You have the audacity to accuse me of treason when you disobeyed orders and put the lives of your squad at risk. That, Keen," Jane spat at him, "is punishable by death."

Keen smirked, "Too bad for you. You have no authority to kill me."

Jane gave him a look, "Oh? Why's that?"

"I was operating in the scope of my mission. You see, Captain, I am not assigned to your squad. I am here to see if you are loyal to the empire. You aren't."

Jane narrowed his eyes behind his helmet at the accusation, "An Inquisitor's dog."

"They prefer the term 'Living Napalm.'" Keen grinned darkly.

Jane pulled his blaster on the monster, putting the muzzle firmly against his head.

"Go ahead," Keen goaded, "show the empire that you are a traitor. By killing me, I have already set up a transmission detailing your treachery."

"Too bad for you our messages can't get to Imperial command, and I am not against the Empire. I'm just more loyal to my family."

"And that makes you a traitor!" Keen exclaimed.

"I would like nothing more then to kill you, you carking laboratory grown monster," Jane snarled, Jaing found that surprising as Jane never referred to clones in such a manner before.

"then do it." Keen smirked.

Jane removed the blaster, "However, your death doesn't belong to me. I think that if anybody should kill you, it's the Jedi that would be far more fitting, and more humiliating to you."

Keen's lips drew behind his teeth in a snarl, "YOU CARCKIN-" *SLAM*

Jane smashed the pommel of his lightsaber into Keen's head, knocking the mad clone out, "That was for Vese," he then kicked Keen viciously in the ribs, blood spilling from his gapping mouth, "and that was for me."

The squad all backed off a bit as the Captain shook with rage and grief, "Take him to the elven prisons. Get him out of my sight." Jane ordered.

The squad all nodded and took Keen to a nearby elf who lead them to the dungeons, Jaing stayed behind and stood by Jane.

"What do you want, Jaing?" Jane asked as he walked up the stairs to the top of the wall again.

"Sir, with all due respect, he is a monster that needs putting down but you are going about it the wrong way."

"I couldn't care less, Jaing. Put up with him enough. I was forced to work with that… thing for months. The bastard that…" he trailed off.

"What did he do to you?" Jaing asked.

Jane swallowed, "He killed my Daughter, Jaing. She was a Jedi at the temple. I gave her up to them after we found out she was force sensitive. I was young and not ready to be a father. I made the classic mistake as a sixteen year old, but Elie left because her father was," he paused for a moment, "let's just say he wasn't a nice man. I didn't get to meet her till she was four, and my brother Viridian was coming home for the week."

He turned away from, leaning against the railing as he sighed somberly. He stared into the waters below, and for a long moment he did not speak. Rather he reflected. But as Jaing stood there patiently, Jane finally continued:

"I raised her for a year with her mother before she died, and then I sent her to learn from the Jedi. I was able to see her every month, then the war happened and she couldn't come it was too dangerous. So, I joined the GAR and wanted to do what I could to make the galaxy safe for her." Jane shook his head, "then Order Sixty Six happened, I feared for her and my brother's life. Viridian told me what happened. He tried to get her out of the temple. When that bastard killed her, she was twelve years old. Twelve years, Jaing."

Jaing found himself greatly saddened, "Sir, I followed Order Sixty Six, but I never harmed a single child."

Jane turned to him, "I know you wouldn't. You couldn't. It's not in your character to. I just wish that you had found her."

"The more I hear, the less I think the order was justified. I had my issues with the Jedi but to butcher them like that?"

Jane's frame shook more, "I think after this assignment, I am going to file a discharge. I can't serve the Empire anymore. They want me to kill my brother, and they already took my daughter from me. I can't do it anymore."

Jaing nodded, "I understand. I have thought about leaving as well. It's odd ever since we were assigned here, I can't help but feel that we're far more free then we are back there."

"Jaing may I ask you something? Why do you want to leave?"

"I was at the temple during Operation Knightfall."

 _(Flash back)_

 _Jaing was fighting against a temple guard, the mask betrayed nothing of the Jedi's face as he valiantly defended his home. The guard pulled Jaing off his feet and prepared to stab him when a blue blade sprouted through his chest. Jaing found himself grimacing: it was Anakin Skywalker or as he now called himself Darth Vader. He wanted to stay as far away from the general he had once respected, but Anakin held out his hand and brought him up to his feet. More of their company came in behind him through the ruined fortifications brought low by the patrolling gunships._

" _Captain, you and your men will hold this position. I will take care of Master Dralig. Guard it with your lives." Vader commanded. It was... odd. Jaing got a good look at his face and saw that he had tear tracks were going down his face but his face remained stoic. Jaing began to understand that he hated this just as much as he did, or at least some part of him._

" _Yes my lord." Jaing responded flatly._

 _Vader nodded and continued his search for Cin Drallig._

 _As soon as he left Jaing turned to his men, "Fortify this position! I am going to look ahead."_

" _Copy that," they responded._

 _Jaing walked through the burning home of the Jedi. He was completely alone. He swallowed; his hatred of the situation came to bare as he clenched his rifle tightly. So much so that he feared it would break._

 _Little did he know he wasn't as alone as he thought he was._

" _So this is the thenks we get?" a feminine voice asked hollowly. Jaing spun around his blaster aimed as the speaker came into the light._

 _He grimaced, his blaster ready but he hesitated. She wasn't being overtly hostile. Jaing could see that this woman had lost a lot and was losing even more; her blue eyes sparkling with tears as her young fair face appeared angry but also pleading._

" _We fought and died on the front lines along side all of you, and this is the thenks we get? We're called traitors and then hunted down and murdered in our very homes?"_

" _The Jedi tried to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor."_

 _The woman sighed, "Master Windu rushed into that situation. He went to arrest a traitor, the man who pitted us against the Separatist," she shook her head and cursed, "Master Windu, you should have thought about that."_

 _"And why should I believe you?"_

 _"I can't give you anything to make sure that you can trust me, other then this." she took one of her sabers and handed it to him._

 _Jaing was taken aback by that gesture. As he took it one of his men came rushing in. Jaing recognized him as his best friend. He blasted at her, the Jedi raising her hand and deflecting it away before throwing the clone against the wall. He got back up and charged again. She took her other saber and stabbed him through the chest, his body crumpling to the floor like a wet rag._

" _JET!" Jaing screamed, activating the saber, and hacking away at her practiced guard, "I SHOULD NOT HAVE TRUSTED YOU!"_

" _He came at me! I defended myself! Don't make me kill you, too!"_

 _Jaing snarled and kneed her in the abdomen. She pushed him against the wall. Little did she know, Jaing had dropped a flashbang at her feet. As soon as it went off Jaing charged, and stabbed her through the chest before she recovered._

 _She dropped her saber, her eyes wide as tears fell down her face, but not from pain though she was in an incredible amount of, "I... failed…. them."_

 _Jaing deactivated the saber, and she fell to her knees. Jaing felt his anger leave him. It gave way to horror as he saw the face of a child in the shadows staring at him in absolute terror._

 _Jaing was about to kneel down and lay her down only for him to be pushed into the wall as several younglings and a young padawan came out and grabbed her to drag her out of the room when more clones came in and took aim._

" _Stop!" Jaing shouted as he came to his feet, the clones looking at him dumbfounded._

" _But sir, Lord Vader…." one of them started._

" _To hell with what he thinks!" Jaing snarled, "We are Soldiers, not Murderers! We will take them to safety!"_

 _The clones looked among each other. Some disagreed, others didn't care, and some agreed with him, "But where, sir?"_

" _Just get them off planet, they can handle the rest." Jaing sighed, the Jedi all nodding at him as they still held the dying woman, Jaing nodded back, "Go."_

(End flashback)

"I never saw them again. Who knows where they went? All I hope is that they are okay." Jaing sighed.

Jane nodded to himself, "That took some guts, Jaing."

"I just did the right thing," he paused for a moment thinking, "the lightsaber I carry was the one she gave me. I doubt she survived."

"Not many people can survive a saber being runned through their chest."

A silence drifted between the two. Jane's thoughts drifted back the few days before a realization hit him, "Jaing," Jane began, his voice tight.

The clone immediately stiffened he had heard the squad captain take that tone, but never against him, "Yes sir?" he asked calmly.

"Why did you not tell me that my brother was in this city earlier?" Jane asked, no small amount of anger dripping into his voice.

"Because I was worried you would hesitate on the mission." Jaing answered softly.

Jane clenched his fist as he thought of his next words, "Just get away from me." he deflated.

Jaing sighed and walked away, feeling as if he had lost Jane's respect.

Niwen was walking through the library in Elrond's house after the battle had ended. She tried to keep away from contact with anyone. While she was in there she heard Viridian on the roof sobbing some time ago.

 _(Flash back)_

 _Niwen climbed up onto the roof to find the source of the disturbance. She had been hearing the young Jedi crying: Captain Jane's brother._

 _Viridian sensed her approach and he tried to calm down when he saw her, "Can I help you?" he asked between hiccups._

 _Niwen gulped. From the way the Vong described the Jedi, it almost sounded like they were divine beings of great power with no wants or desires, but now she saw the truth. They were just as human as she was._

" _I am sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." Niwen breathed out._

" _Niwen, please. It's alright, I'm just dealing with something," Viridian explained hollowly, "I had to deliver some bad news to my brother. I expected him to hate me, in fact I think I would have preferred it that he did."_

" _F-for what?" Niwen asked._

 _Viridian's tears refreshed and he clenched his eyes shut; his lips drawing back to show his teeth as he tried to hold it back, "I-I was unable to save his daughter, my niece, in the attack that saw the death of my people."_

 _Niwen thought about it for a moment, her heart going out to the family. She climbed up and sat down in front of him; she studied him for a moment. Over the years she had studied faces in order to read them. She had gotten quite good at it she had to so that Arthinor didn't abuse her any more then normally._

" _You blame yourself and you want everyone else to blame you too." she stated._

" _Why do I get to live?" Viridian asked, "Why didn't I die with them?"_

 _Niwen sighed, "I can't answer that, but the way I see it, you are called to be a witness."_

" _A witness?" Viridian asked._

" _You carry with you the memories of those people. Through you, they live on even if they aren't with us any more. To ask for your death is to ask for their complete annihilation from history."_

 _Viridian felt as if he had been slapped in the face, though if he was fair with himself, he did deserve it, "I-I'm just tired of fighting. It's not that I wouldn't fight, but sometimes I wonder why not just go find some force sensitive kids and train them on some back water away from everything. Away from the empire away from fighting. I have been fighting for five years, and I am tired."_

 _Niwen thought about the answer to that, "Is the fight worth it?"_

" _Worth it in what way?" Viridian asked._

" _Well you have your family. Is that not worth the fight? To fight for the ability to see them and be with them?"_

 _Viridian swallowed, "That is most definitely worth it. My father Jon and my mother Jessy... I would love to see them again, along with my brothers and sisters, but I know that in all likelihood I won't get a happy ending."_

 _Niwen teared up, "Not many stories get that. Stories start off bad and never get better."_

 _Viridian turned to her seeing her beginning to cry, and he began to feel guilty. All his self pity and doubt she had suffered far more, "I am sorry, Niwen. Here I am crying about my past, and you have probably been through far worse."_

 _Niwen shook her head, "Don't apologize. Your past is tragic and sad. You have lost your people. You should do what you must to come to terms with that... I can't even remember anything before he took me from my people."_

 _Viridian held up a hand, "Then allow me to help you along with your father. He is here in the city. I have been traveling with him, and he never gave up looking for you. He searched all of these lands and went to Rohan. He was on his way over the mountain to search these lands to find you. He loves you greatly."_

 _Niwen brought her knees to her chest and began to shake._

 _Viridian closed his eyes, "Arthinor did a lot of terrible things to you."_

" _Y-yes."_

" _Your father will not hate you, he will understand."_

" _The Dunedain hate the black numenoreans."_

 _Viridian shrugged, "To tell you the truth, I can't say I blame them."_

" _Then how would they feel about half breeds?" Niwen asked._

 _Viridian's eyes widened, "By the force."_

 _Niwen clenched her eyes shut, "I didn't want it... he forced himself on me. He said I could either be with him or let the orcs ravage me."_

 _Viridian felt his animosity towards the dark sorcerer grow even more. He felt the desire to rip him apart._

" _H-he wanted to produce powerful servants for him." she hiccuped._

" _If they will not be accepted by the Dunedain, then we will take care of them." Viridian told her, "we will raise them to be Jedi."_

" _I want them to be safe."_

 _Viridian nodded, "The life of a Jedi is not that but they will be accepted. How many children are there?"_

 _Niwen hiccuped, "T-two. A boy and a girl, seven year old twins."_

 _Viridian swallowed. That meant she was fifteen years old when that happened, "Where are they?"_

" _Last I know in Dol Goldur, though they might be moved to Mordor soon."_

 _Viridian nodded, "I will do what I can. You should tell your father though."_

" _What if he rejects them?"_

 _Viridian shook his head to assure her, "He won't. As far as he is concerned, your children are innocent. He will accept them."_

 _(end flashback)_

"Niwen?" Celebion asked as he came into the library, standing behind her.

Niwen gulped and turned around to see the great man she had seen from a distance when he first came to Rivendell.

Celebion stepped into the room tentatively so as not to scare her. Silence fell between them unsure of what to say.

Niwen let out a shuddering breath, "I don't know who you are." she admitted, "But I feel like I should."

Celebion swallowed and he held up a necklace of seashells, "I am Celebion, I am your father."

Niwen saw her seashell necklace, then turned to him; images popped up in her mind she was a little girl collecting seashells on the shore of the sea, and there he was with her every step of the way the image changed again and she saw him fight off a horde of orcs to protect her.

"I-I remember making that. I remember you... Father." she stated her voice heavy with emotion as she ran forward and barreled into him, crying.

Celebion let out a breath, "I missed you so much!" he told her eyes full of tears.

Father and daughter stayed like that for a few minutes till they couldn't cry anymore.

Celebion felt like he was holding his little girl, not his twenty two year old daughter. When she calmed down enough, she stayed in his embrace.

"What do you remember?" Celebion asked hopefully.

Niwen delved into her memories, "I remember our trip to the western sea and our journey back when we were attacked by orcs. You protected me from them, and me making that necklace." she shook her head, "I am sorry but that's all I can remember."

Celebion just soothingly rubbed her back, "Shh, it's alright. I will do what I can to help you remember these happy memories."

Niwen sniffled, "I would like that."

Medical Hall - Rivendale

Wiglaf groaned as he came to. hHe made out the ceiling of the ward and felt a soft bed beneath him, "Ow, what happened?" he asked as he sat up

Grate huffed right beside him, "That high and mighty stranger thrashed us."

Wiglaf groaned, "There has to be someway to counter their powers to defeat them."

Grate grumbled "There is always a way to defeat such foes! A dwarf will find a way!"

Wiglaf felt a spark of inspiration hit him, "Maybe we can ask our friends from the fields of heaven if there has been a warrior capable of facing such power?"

Grate nodded in agreement, "It's certainly a place to start."

"Well then, shall we, my friend?" Wiglaf asked climbing to his feet.

Grate turned to the young lad, he smiled behind his bushy beard and nodded, "Aye lad."

"There have been and there are." a voice from the other occupied bed stated, the human and dwarf turned to find Du in bed his eyes closed but they could tell by his breathing that he was very much awake "Warriors who have no relationship with the force have bested Jedi, and Sith in personal combat."

"So, there is a precedent for it." Wiglaf stated.

The Zabrak hummed in affirmation, "Yeah, the Morgukai are a great example of such warriors. The Mandalorians are another."

"Well, that's great." Grate grinned, "Can you direct us to them?"

Du chuckled, "The Morgukai hate Force Users in general. I would have to defend myself if I even tried to meet with them, and well you can talk to Jak. He is a Mandalorian."

Wiglaf raised an eyebrow, "Why are you telling us this?"

Du just shrugged, "That bastard drove a spear through one of my hearts and made me bedridden for a few weeks. There are even more of them." he opened his eyes and gave them a look, "I want my friends to have the best chance when facing such enemies."

"I see, Laddie." Grate smiled.

"But know this. The Jedi have fought wars with both the Morgukai and the Mandalorians and we won."

The Human and Dwarf looked to be interested, "Can you tell us these stories?"

Du looked up at them and smiled, "I don't have anything else to do might as well."

Rivendale Trenchline

Thorin walked among the bodies of the dead orcs; the air stank of orc stench. He looked at Dwalin, Kili, and Fili, "This trip I fear will be more perilous than I had dared to imagine."

Dwalin nodded, "But it will be worth it, my liege, for as long as I breath I will follow you."

Fili and Kili nodded in agreement.

Thorin nodded, "Thank you. I am worried that Viridian will not follow us anymore after he found his friends. He is truly a powerful ally."

Jak just snapped the neck of a goblin as it sprang up, "You don't need to worry, Thorin, we all agreed to come with you."

Thorin stopped short and turned to the Mandalorian, his eyes wide with hope, "A-all of you?"

Jak nodded grinning behind his helmet, "Yes, and I must say I don't favor Smaug's chances."

Had it been anybody else, Thorin would have scolded them. But knowing the Jedi's abilities and their power and strange devices, Thorin couldn't help but chuckle, "Your help is most welcome."

Thorin smiled along with the other dwarves. While the journey would be perilous they would have some great friends to help them in this quest. Now to Thorin it didn't seem to be a question of if Erebor would be reclaimed but when.

Xey let out a breath as she sat on top of the tower at the back of Rivendell. It was over. The battle was won with minimal casualties. Xey just sighed, it wasn't as impressive in her mind they were fighting a medieval style war using such tactics, in a way she supposed that was what the Jedi were good at in a roundabout way. Granted not true feudal style warfare but then again the Jedi were superhuman men and women with access to many extraordinary abilities who could steamroll most individuals who had no idea with what they were facing or had no access to the technology to help even the odds a little.

Xey shook her head of such musings and continued to look over the city and valley. She had seen Viridian talk with his brother, and him running past Balin to sit on the house, then Niwen coming up to talk to him. She also saw Kes and Viridian start a new phase of their relationship. Xey began to feel a longing and she realized that she missed Jaran, tears welled up in her silver eyes as she thought of him.

With that she stood up and leapt down to the house before jumping off that and onto the road.

Viridian and Kes saw her, and the couple stood up, "Xey how are you?"

Xey ran up to the two and hugged them both, "It's about time you two." she cried, both tears of joy and pain.

Viridian and Kes hugged her back, "You miss Jaran, don't you?" Viridian asked

Xey sobbed and nodded, "I wish he was here."

Kes leaned back "Tell us what he was like. I want to know about the man who took my sister's heart."

Xey closed her eyes as tears seeped through the lids.

"He was a good man, a selfless person. He would give his food away to the other prisoners, and me. One day I gave him mine, and then as the months went by we began to feel something for each other. We both shared our food with the other prisoners, and we would sneak each other kisses... it was so sad he would have outlived me but he was killed by that bastard."

"Hey," Viridian soothed, "that guy will get his due."

"Indeed. The wicked can only escape the hand of justice for so long." Gandalf said as he walked from the house, the three teens turned to him and bowed.

"Gandalf, how are you?" Viridian asked as he came back to his full height.

"I am well. I am pleased to see that the battle went so well."

Viridian smiled, "The trench idea was something that we did during the Cardia Campaign though in that battle we had highly trained clone soldiers and we were facing droids. It worked pretty well there we thought it would work here as well."

"A good strategy and it proved to be effective." Gandalf stated.

"Yeah… it did." Viridian said as he looked into the sky, "though we were missing anti air support in this fight and had to make due. It makes me wonder if all they were doing is using this as a test instead of actually trying to conquer the city?" he mused aloud.

"Our enemy is cunning and devious, it is very possible he had no intention of conquering this city and only wanted to test his new breed of orc."

"Except Du and I got in the way and killed them before they could truly get into the city," Viridian added, "given how badly that captain banged me up they were at least some what successful. We might not have been so fortunate even with the fortifications."

"Perhaps, perhaps not, but this battle has affirmed my fears for this quest's success with what the enemy has produced this far, I fear we may not be ready for when he is ready for the true war to come." Gandalf said gravely.

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "Is that why you want to help the Dwarves reclaim Erabor? So that the free peoples would have another stronghold against the darkness."

Gandalf nodded, "And to rob the enemy of a very powerful potential ally."

"Smaug." Xey whispered.

"Correct. Viridian, if you are to be my student then you must be made aware of the true nature of not only the enemy but also myself."

Viridian swallowed, "So there is more to you than an old, wise and enigmatic wizard?" he asked in a tone that suggested he suspected something about it.

"Yes." Gandalf answered simply with a smile and a nod, "And I will show all of you when you are all rested and up to it, but until then my presence is needed else where i shall see you tonight."

Viridian stared at Gandalf as he walked into the city even more anxious than ever he turned to the girls, "Will you two also train under him?" he asked them.

"I have considered asking him," Kes admitted, "who knows what he could teach us."

"Eru does." Viridian quipped.

Xey gave him a raised eyebrow, "You know Eru is this world's god, right?" she asked him.

Viridian hummed and nodded in acknowledgement, "Yeah, him along with the Valar."

"Actually not really." Xey said.

Viridian raised an eyebrow at her, "Huh?"

"The Valar may look like gods you would see in a pantheon, but they actually don't consider themselves to be. They don't see themselves as worthy of the title." she explained.

"Really?" Viridian asked surprised, "That is interesting. So they're high angels or divine beings?"

"They are the powers of this world in essence. They hold it together much like the Iluvatar holds all of creation together."

"Hmm." Viridian thought to himself.

Kes looked at him curiously "Viridian?" she began, getting his attention, "Are you considering to begin worshiping Iluvatar?"

Viridian considered the question for a moment, "I might," he answered honestly, "I'm not sure though."

Kes smiled at him, "Let's see where this journey takes us."

Viridian grinned, "As this one song has taught me, 'The Greatest adventure is what lies ahead.'"

"Well said my friend." Celebion said as he walked in with Niwen behind him

"Celebion!" Viridian exclaimed turning to bow to him, "How are you?"

Celebion smiled back at Niwen, "I am well, and happy now that I have found my daughter."

Niwen smiled. Viridian sombered, "So what will you do now?"

Celebion looked at Niwen.

"Father and I talked, and we agreed to finish this journey to Erabor." Niwen began.

"And then." Celebion started, "We would like to come with you and help you."

Viridian, Kes, and Xey's eyes widened.

Viridian recovered from his shock quickly, "May I ask why?" he asked.

"Because you were willing to help us when you had no obligation or expectation of reward. You have shown me time and again what kind of man you are: a good man. You may stumble a bit and have issues with hatred but your willingness to conquer your demons and help others is inspiring, and I want to return the favor. No," he corrected himself, "I must return the favor."

Viridian gulped, "Celebion, we're talking about a galaxy spanning empire armed with weapons and powers that this world could not hope to match without the Valar helping. An enemy with the power to lay waste to the worlds it comes across. Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked him.

Without any hesitation both father and daughter nodded, and Viridian found himself moved by this and he bowed to them again, "You guys are awesome!" Viridian exclaimed standing back up, "Don't let anyone tell you different." with that he embraced them heartily.

Celebion smiled and returned the embrace, after Viridian pulled away Celebion grasped his shoulder, "My friend if I may ask, what does 'awesome' mean?" he asked.

Viridian chuckled at that, while Kes and Xey laughed, "I'll explain it to you later," and with that the group walked back inside the house.

That evening there was a great feast in the hall with song and dance. Viridian sat with the company who were incredibly merry, even Thorin was having a good time.

It began to feel a little crowded and Viridian walked out onto the balcony and looked at the stars.

"It's a beautiful night." Kes said following him onto the Balcony.

Viridian turned to face her, "Yeah it is." he agreed, absently he felt that this was a cliche scene in a romantic holo, but he didn't care. She looked gorgeous with the pale moonlight reflecting in her strawberry blonde hair. He absently reached up and tucked on of the locks behind her ear, and stopped himself from resting a hand on her cheek, and put his hand back to his side.

Kes looked at him in confusion.

Viridian appeared sheepish, "I want this to work, and I don't want to rush anything."

Kes smiled and nodded in understanding, and the two continued to watch the stars and moon, the faint music and merriment behind them becoming more and more ambient.

That was when they felt it. A disturbance in the Force coming from just in the edge of the system.

Inside the hall

Gandalf had been smoking his pipe when he to felt the disturbance but he appeared to be nonchalant about it. In fact he smiled behind his beard, "He has heard your cries and has called someone to your aid from a great distance that they can never return to the horror which they call home." Gandalf said cryptically to himself

The Yuuzhan Vong Koros Strona

Orbiting the Sun of Arda in the system's asteroid belt

Supreme Commander Vem Carr sat in his command chair his eyes almost completely closed. His breathing even and his finger tips touching in front of him, to the passing warriors who glanced at him he was praying. In reality he was meditating and reflecting. the Supreme Commander had talked to Supreme Commander Zimur Shai, his counterpart on the ground.

The campaign had been going well. The arrival of the Jeddai however had caused some problems and setbacks. Today was meant to be the day they were to conquer the elven city of Rivendell. Vem Carr smiled, the Jed'dai had certainly earned their reputation as potent warriors on the battlefield, and the stratagem they used greatly impressed him. Many Vong in the empire considered the Jed'dai to be Demons of great power, and despite their defection from the empire to serve Sauron's cause, many still did.

Vem knew better. They were ultimately just men and women. Powerful men and women to be sure, but still mortal.

The living ship reverberated a little and the Yammosks the devices named after the Yuuzhan Vong god of war began to charge up weapons. Vem opened his blue star shaped eyes. It had detected a ship.

He spoke through ships equivalent to comms in a cool manner, "Battlestations." he then looked at the display of the ship jumping in from 'darkspace'. It was a small ship shaped like a disk with large engines on the back of it, a cockpit inserted on the right side of the craft and two turrets on the top and bottom.

Vem heard one of the warriors on his left snarl at the ship, and mutters of 'abomination and heresy' spread around. Vem crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the ship avoid the pack of Yorik-et flying from his ship to destroy it.

Vem frowned. The craft did not try to hail them, in fact it seemed to avoid them all together even before they sent the Yorik-et out. It seemed they knew what they were.

'But how?' Vem thought to himself. Contact with the anathema inhabitants of this galaxy have happened in the past but they were always small isolated incidents with the sole exception of the Jed'dai arriving over a month ago it never involved the type of ship he commanded now.

The Dovin Basal tried to latch onto the ship but the infernal field protected it from their gravitational influence.

After a few minutes chase the strange ship landed on Arda, on the continent of Middle Earth.

Vem frowned thoughtfully. The strange ship landed in the forest the natives called 'Mirkwood' near the fortress of Dol Guldur. He was sure that the Orcs would be heading in to investigate. He extended an organic tendril that from his armor and inserted it into a slot on the console and felt the familiar pain as a tendril inserted into his back and wrapped around his spine, and tapped into the nervous system of his brain.

Vem saw a flurry of images flash across his eyes as the probe sent the images directly into his brain, commanding the probe to rise up from the fortress and follow the pack of Orc Warg Riders that it'd found moving in that direction.

Mirkwood forest near the mysterious ship.

The Orc captain snarled as they came to a stop at the strange vessel. It hissed as it released some kind of gas. He tried to look into the window but he couldn't get a good look at the occupants. He dismounted from his warg and strode forward to the ship, wrapping his fist on it a bit.

"Hmm perhaps we can scavenge it. I think I would look good in some of this armor." the Orc Captain grinned.

"What about us?" another Orc asked.

"There is plenty for everyone of the bish bash boys!" the Captain laughed

The orcs all cheered. Then it happened: the ramp hissed as it opened. The orcs looked among each other in sadistic glee at the chance for a fight.

The probe under Vem's control that was with the group saw the figure. He was taller than the average Yuuzhan Vong. He had the body of a warrior; dark brown almost black hair, bright sky blue eyes. He wore some armor that Vem attributed to the ancient records of Jed'dai warriors, the color scheme was unusual however it was black, red, green, blue, and orange. For a brief moment Vem thought that the man wasn't a Jed'dai. Then he saw it.

Two hilts hung from his waist, the warrior however reached behind him and pulled out a hilt made of Yorik kul, surprising the supreme commander and ignited a pure white blade.

What happened next was nothing if not efficient and well... if he was honest with himself, predictable. The strange Jed'dai slaughtered the orcs and wargs in a manner of seconds, and then the Jed'dai held up his hands. Vem saw a surge of electricity surge from the Jed'dai's hands and hit the probe before the signal cut out.

Vem shook his head to clear the sudden loss of sensory input before he contacted Zimur.

"What is it Carr?" Zimur asked over the communications.

Vem spoke calmly and with simplicity, "We have a new Jed'dai on Arda."

 **AN:Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and the end of the first part of the Arda arc of this story, well till next time**


	21. The Mysterious Jedi

**AN: Hello everybody, back with another chapter, special thanks to Jacob for proofreading and editing, I highly recommend you guys check out his stuff he is a great friend to be helping me with this, now anyway onto the chapter.**

 **The Mysterious Jedi**

Rivendell main hall

The celebration had dwindled. People were still being merry but it had become a more quiet and general affair than anything. Viridian sat with Kes on a bench, staring at a fire when Jane walked by and sat down from him, and her.

"Ah Jane, I would like to introduce you to someone." Viridian smiled and gestured to Kes, "this is Kes Ametesi, my girlfriend." Viridian stopped short. It felt a bit strange to say that. Not in a bad way but strange nonetheless.

Jane smiled at the young woman, "Hello Kes. I am Jane Mallory, Viridian's brother."

Kes smiled and nodded, "It's nice to finally meet you."

Jane nodded, "You as well." he sighed as he looked into the fire, "I'm not sure what I am going to do now."

Viridian averted his eyes to the floor and sighed, "We're going to finish a mission on Arda before we leave. Jane, I know that you are willing to lay down everything for me but, what about everyone else if the empire learns that you betrayed them? What will happen to them?"

Jane swallowed, his eyes welling up with tears that reflected the fire light, "That is the rub." Jane whispered, "I will have to choose between one family member or the others."

"There is a third option." Kes began, getting the older man's attention, "get them all to safety."

"That would mean they would have to give up their lives till the Empire either reforms or is overthrown."

Viridian looked back at Jane, "Maybe," he began softly, "if they are willing to make that decision."

Jane let out a breath, "I think they would. I will ask when we see them again."

Viridian felt a smile tug at his lips, "But now is not the time to be gloomy. Now is a time to be merry!" he exclaimed getting cheers of agreement from the hall. Jane smiled, grabbing an ale and downed it in a gulp.

After a few hours, Viridian and Kes decided to go to bed in the medical ward to stay with Du. They found Janus and Xey there along with Ulra, Jasmine, and Jak.

Viridian could sense a little anger from Jak, and as soon as Viridian sat down, he quietly excused himself. Viridian sighed.

"I should probably go talk to him." Viridian said standing up.

Kes looked up at him and nodded, "Ask what you did to offend him and give him your most sincere apology."

Viridian nodded in understanding. It would be easier said than done. He took a breath and followed Jak to the place where they had their argument before the battle.

"Jak." Viridian began getting the Mando'a's attention. Viridian gulped and did the only thing he could think to do: he got on his knees and placed his face on the ground. He completely and utterly humbled himself before him, muttering: "I am so, so sorry for threatening you. Please forgive me."

"Get up." Jak was all that said to reply this.

Viridian did so and looked into his eyes despite how tempting it was to avoid contact.

Jak's hardened blue eyes stared back heavily like arctic glare. "I'm gonna say this once. Don't ever to try pull that kind of **osik** with me or any of us for that matter." He grabbed his helmet, donning it with a rush of compressed air as the seal was made, "I'll accept your apology since you did so. But don't expect me accept another one if it happens again." He turned his back on Viridian, walking away in contempt.

Viridian sighed as he walked to the bench and slumped into it; watching the mist splash into the night sky and mix into the starry light of Arda's celestial neighbor and the distant stars of his home, "How did this happen?" he asked himself.

Jane came by and sat next to him, "What's got you so down?"

Viridian sighed, "I may have permanently damaged a friendship."

Jane nodded sympathetically, "I know that feeling, brother. I've been on both sides of that predicament."

Viridian turned his head to look at his brother, "What do you mean?"

"I hurt the friendship, and the friendship was hurt by my friend."

Viridian let out a breathy mirthless laugh, "We always seem to get screwed over. I had friends who were clones during the war." he said bitterly, "we should have never trusted them."

Jane rose an eyebrow, "Didn't the Jedi commissioned the clone army?"

Viridian snorted, "HA! No, if someone did they went under the nose of the council, but I really think that the Sith had something to do with it."

Jane nodded, 'So the lower ranks either didn't know, or he is telling the truth.'

"Don't expect me to trust your men. I am not willing to put myself in that position like that again especially with Keen." Viridian growled, his hand clenched into fists.

"I had him arrested. From what I understand you and him will have a trial by combat in a few days." Jane explained before adding, "It'll be to the death."

Viridian nodded, "So one of us won't walk out of the arena? Seems fitting in a way."

"Viridian," Jane said warningly, "I am all for his execution. He is a dangerous mad dog who will stop at nothing to cause as much harm as possible, but to kill him for a personal vendetta," Jane swallowed as tears stung his eyes, "Even if it is Vesse's death you will be avenging, I don't want to lose you down that path so many Jedi fell down in the Clone Wars."

Viridian swallowed as he remembered their names: Depa Bilaba, Sora Bulq, Quinlan Vos, Pong Krell, Anakin Skywalker, along with so many others… two of them had found their way back from the abyss. Two out of several.

"I am not them." Viridian said simply.

"That's probably what each of them said before they joined that list."

Viridian didn't want to admit it, but he was right, Viridian took a deep breath, "It's easy to do evil." Viridian began.

"It takes effort to do good." Jane finished.

The brothers sat in silence for a moment before Viridian turned to Jane, his eyes hard and vindicated, "I'm still going to fight Keen."

"Of course."

Viridian turned back to the scenery.

"It's so hard to believe." Jane said.

"What is?"

"That all the way out here on a feudal world I would find my baby brother alive and well."

Viridian closed his eyes, "My masters would say it's the will of the force, but I am beginning to wonder if Iluvatar had anything to do with it."

Jane chuckled, "When I saw you down in the trenches I was so happy that I declared that there was a god," then he sobered, "Then you told me of Vesse."

Viridian clenched his eyes shut, "I was angry. I should not have told you the way I did."

"You ran into her killer, I can't blame you for being angry." Jane somberly shook his head. Viridian looked down and saw drops of water falling to the floor. Viridian looked back up and saw Jane crying; his teeth clenched and his eyes overflowing with tears.

Viridian placed an arm around him and patted him on the back to let him know he was there. His mind drifted, in a few days he and Keen would fight to the death. Then there was the disturbance in the force from earlier. One thing was for certain: the journey was going to get a lot harder.

(Page Break)

Sleep didn't come easy for Viridian that night. At some point, he got fed up and decided to get some training in. From what he could tell given the moon's position, it was the middle of the night.

Viridian winced as he stretched the injuries he sustained in the battle; reminding him that it might not be a good idea to go over board and decided to do some light stretching and walk around the elven city.

Kes had saw him get up and leave in the middle of the night. She shadowed him watching him at work. Kes wondered if this had anything to do with Jak, or something else. The Mandalorian had yet to come back from his walk. Kes watched as Viridian walked into the city, the moon lighting his silhouette in the darkness of the streets. Kes figured that he was trying to tire himself out so he could go to sleep.

Kes sensed the Mandalorian walking by, and she turned to face him; growling: "What did you say to him?"

Jak turned to her, "What?"

"When he went to apologize to you, what did you say to him?" Kes repeated, her tone heavy and even as she walked up to him.

"All I said was the truth. I accepted his apology but I won't accept another if it happens again."

"Oh no you don't!" her eyes flashed with anger as she balled up her fists, coming face to face with the taller man, "Tell me exactly what happened! Tell me everything, from his transgression against you to his apology, now!"

Jak stared at her for a long moment, shaking his head.

"He threaten me. I stepped in line when he was getting too aggressive and he threatened me. I don't take threats lightly, especially in the manner he did."

"I asked for everything!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms wide, "I know what he did, but for kriff sake I want to know as much of the situation as possible! He won't tell me other than he said some things he regrets! So for Force sake, tell me what happened!"

Jak sighed, pressing his fingers into the bridges of his eyes, "I was talking with him when he brought up the Orcs and how they came to be, saying how he felt sorry for them. I told him that the Clones in many ways are the same way. Viridian got angry and an argument erupted between us." Jak explained.

Kes bowed her head, closing her eyes as she nodded slowly, "The clones hurt us a lot, Jak," her hands hung still at her side, frozen and cold, "We were in the middle of the Temple when it happened," tears welled up in her eyes, "I still remember the screams and the smell of burning flesh. You remember that youngling that Viridian told you about, the one Keen killed?" she asked him

"I remember when I found her body in cold storage on the resistance's ship. He told me to leave her alone... he told me that her name was Vesse, and how she died but… well, that's about it."

"She was his neice."

"Oh." His face froze in that moment, his eyes heavy. His gut had told him the kid had been close to Viridian in some way. He hated to be right. "I see."

"Jak, we may never forgive the clones for what they did." Kes sombered softly, "I know that you were close to them, but so were we and when they started to shoot us in the back it…" she turned away, "It hurts just as much when we learned a fellow Jedi fell to darkness."

"I ain't asking forgiveness, Kes. Don't mistake that I ain't. I only ask don't judge everyone for the actions made by another. Judge the individuals involved and their actions, not the whole."

This was a touchy subject for Jak.

Kes just pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing, "Jak, we are not the Mandalorians you knew growing up, so stop comparing us to them." she said in annoyance, "I get you had a bad childhood and were treated badly because you came from the same clan as Tor and Pre. Look, I get being judged based on the actions of people you never met is terrible. We Jedi went through that a lot." she sympathized, "I get that not all the clone troopers partook in that grievous bloodshed. I am not talking about them. I hope they are alive and well. I am talking about the overwhelming **majority** that did: the ones that became the stormtroopers."

"I AIN'T!" he bellowed in anger, his eyes widening with rage; utterly surprising Kes, "I know you're not them! You didn't try to kill me! You didn't call me Aru'tal! Traitor's blood! Didn't have your name stained with the blood of thousands!" He smashed a piece of maple with his fist, breaking it into pieces. He sighed heavily, almost panting as he stared into the running river below:

"... Tor and Pre weren't just apart of my clan... They were my family. Tor was my grandfather... Pre was my father."

After the initial shock, she stood there listening to him vent, but tensed just in case he did anything violent to her.

"My grandfather was one of worst criminals in our history. He betrayed Mand'alor! He killed anyone who stood in his way! Clans were wiped out, including kids! Clan Sornell were burned alive by him! Members of Clan Tyra were raped and murdered by members of Death Watch under his command! He killed a thousand outsiders and Mandalorians in a single year in the Civil War! And my father?" He fists clenched in rage as he spat:

"He didn't even knew I existed up until the Clone Wars! I was forced to watch **neighbors** , **friends** , and **family** get taken away by New Mandalorian Police because they wanted live by our traditions and didn't want have to give up their history and identity! My own mother worked as an assassin to keep me alive while our Clan was blacklisted! She died on a mission, killed by Mandalorian Secret Service led by a Jedi. I thought the Death Watch changed under my father's leadership."

He was quiet for a bit, staring into nothingness. When he continued, his voice was on the verge of cracking, held back only by a thread of self control, "... You didn't see the things I saw them do, the kind of things that burns in your mind. Even the Clone Troopers involved at the Temple had more honor than the things I saw Death Watch do… and I was involved. Then I saw that I betrayed my own kriffing best friend because I joined up with the Watch! He… he was the only person who never judged me for who I came from. But I saw it in his eyes: he was hurt. He felt betrayed that I had joined up with the very same group that killed his whole family."

He could never get rid the look in Rarok's eyes when he told him he joined with Death Watch in the Clone Wars. "Ulra is probably one of only goddamn things that is still important to me in this kriffed up galaxy."

He looked into Kes's eyes, his face even but his eyes heavy, "Don't mistake my intentions for something else, Kes."

Kes closed her eyes and sighed, "Deja Vu." she said to herself but loud enough for Jak to hear.

"What?"

"One of my good friends, Daniel Valo. When he found out who is father was and all that, he closed himself off from us for a week before we finally got him to talk to us, and he laid it out to us. I will tell you what I told him." she said with somber smile, "But… you don't mind if I hug you do you?"

"... Go ahead."

Kes pulled him into a hug, her arms tightly wounding around the Mandalorians torso. After a moment, she spoke with the softest of whispers: "You are blameless in the eyes of your loved ones, the force, and the Deities that may exist in the universe. All that matters is what you do with the gift you have been given, so use it well."

"I don't put much stock in the Force, but... thanks." He pulled away from the hug, taking something out of his pouch, revealing it to be a Mandalorian cigarra.

"Oh really you don't put much stock in the Force despite being in a relationship with a Miraluka Jedi... and traveling with a **group** of them?" she asked amused

"I know it exists, I just don't see it like Sith or Jedi do." Lighting the cigarra, he took it in before blowing the smoke out of his mouth like dragon's breath.

"You might want to do Ulra a favor and try to quit." Kes said and walked away, "also I don't think Lord Elrond would appreciate smoking on his property." she added.

"You do realize they smoke themselves too right?" He said as she walked away

Kes turned back to see his smug expression, it was always a game between them she would try to get him to stop smoking he would, he won this round.

"Ah there you are Jak!" Kes turned to see Ulra coming from around corner. She was shocked to find she was smoking a pipe like the Dwarves and Gandalf use. Kes shook her head and walked off, "Why do I even bother?" she muttered to herself. She made to follow Viridian, finding him standing on top of the gate.

Viridian stood on the ramparts overlooking the battlefield that he had fought on the day before. Every time he got the chance, he would look back on the field of the war torn environments. He could still see the pyres of the dead orcs and vong burning. No one had died on their side, it was hard for him to believe that. One could say he was looking for the piece of himself that he lost. Maybe he was, or maybe he was asking himself when it would end, if it would end… if he truly wanted it to end.

Viridian sighed and stood up straight, 'Daniel, Vega I honestly hope that wherever you are, that you are alive and well.' He turned about and began to make his way to the steps when a unfamiliar voice spoke to him:

"This is Jedi Knight Tau Nyl, calling any Jedi that are currently fighting for the light on the world of Arda. I come with grave warnings that threaten this world as well as the galaxy, and I wish to aid you in the coming wars. Find me in the great dark forest that contains an entity of pure evil."

Viridian checked his comm, it wasn't active, 'Telepathy, who the hell are you?!' Viridian screamed back over the telepathic link.

'I am here to help.' Tau returned.

'I knew just about every Jedi in the order, 'Tau'. There was no Tau Nyl.' Viridian retorted.

"Forgive me, young Jedi, but if you knew my true name, you would not trust me. A Celestial known as Iluvatar sent me to aid you in your righteous struggle. Find me in the dark forest, and I will share with you all of the knowledge that I possess on the Yuuzhan Vong, who I know threaten this world, as well as the entire galaxy, and I tell you my true name. Trust in the Light Side of the Force, as well as your instincts. May the Force be with you, Padawan." The mysterious Jedi replied before his Force presence vanished, leaving Viridian confused and bewildered.

Viridian turned to see Kes standing there looking up at him in confusion and concern.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I do not know." Viridian said, "Whatever it is we should deal with this Tau with caution, till he can be trusted."

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed, and before you ask no Viridian is not talking to the Blue skinned alien communist and he won't be fighting for 'the Greater Good.' as they like to say, anyway I will see you in the next chapter.**


	22. Waiting for the Dawn

**AN: Hi everyone, I am here with another chapter special thanks to Jacob Sailer for helping me with some of the romance scenes, anyway I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

 **Waiting for the Dawn**

It turned out all the Jedi had heard the telepathic message from 'Tau Nyl'; all of them wary of this powerful entity. However, Ulra did point out he exhibited the Light Side, which did help ease their minds a little bit but not much.

"Well there's not much we can do about this Tau now." Du said, "He's in Mirkwood if his description of 'the dark forest' is anything to go by. That's a few months away on foot."

"Yeah, it's not going to matter much if I can't win this fight." Viridian said.

"What do you mean?" Kes asked concerned.

Viridian's face remained neutral, but his eyes were hard as granite, "A few days from now, Keen and I will step into an arena," he paused allowing the moment to sink in before finishing with, "and only one of us will walk out."

The group remained silent, "Viridian," Xey began getting his attention, shaking her head as she did, "You will not be allowed to use your abilities in this fight and you will only be armed with simple sword... are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Viridian just stared at them; his eyes full of determination as if from this moment on this was his only purpose, "I'm going to kill him." he answered simply.

Nobody tried to dispute him on that. They all agreed that Keen did indeed need to die, but there was the risk Viridian would die in that arena. Kes turned to Xey, knowing that there was no way to talk Viridian out of it, and if she was honest herself, she wanted the psycho dead too. However, she wanted to give Viridian the best chance at winning this fight.

Xey nodded she was willing to teach Viridian what he needed in order to help him, though she was confident that Viridian didn't need it.

The next day Viridian and Xey began an intense sparring match. While she outclassed him in hand to hand martial arts, he had greatly surprised her with his tenacity and willingness to win within the rules of the duel. Xey knew that when he got like this, Viridian became a force of nature. He knew what needed to be done and he went after it one hundred and twenty percent. It served him well in the war, but sometimes it scared them.

The next day Viridian approached Gandalf and asked him if he could, and would, temporarily cut off his connection to the Force. Gandalf needless to say was in shock.

"Why do you request this, Viridian?" Gandalf asked.

"I don't want to be stuck with the temptation to break the rules of the duel. Besides... it's just Keen and me. The force will be with me regardless but I will not risk dishonoring the fight. If I die there, then I die. If he dies, then he dies. Nothing more nothing less." Viridian explained, "Besides I will want to use my powers to absolutely break the man."

Gandalf sighed, "Viridian, I am afraid I cannot grant your request."

Viridian looked up in surprise, "Why not?"

"Because you alone must overcome your inner emotions. I will not always be there to lend assistance. And in this, you have two paths presented before you. You may either remain true to yourself and resist the temptation to become something that you are not, or you fail yourself and the ones you love. You cannot ask for me to strip away your freewill, Viridian, even if it is what you desire. If I did, I would be no better than Morgoth. You alone must make that choice."

Viridian could only stare at him in confusion, "I-I don't understand."

Gandalf bade Viridian to walk with him, "Viridian, when the first sentient beings were created, they had the gift of freewill, of consciousness. They had the capability within them to be beyond the other simple animals. They possessed the power to do great good, and even terrible evil," Gandalf explained, "even the Elves and the Ainur possessed this gift. Melkor used his to become the first Dark Lord," they came to a stop in the observatory, the white mist falling from the cliff and spraying them a little. Gandalf sighed heavily, "It is truly the greatest gift bestowed upon us, but it can also be the greatest of curses. This gift was stripped from the Orcs and now they are capable of only injustice," he turned to Viridian his eyes hard, "if I took away your free will, possessed you only the capability of doing good then what is the meaning of it? If you are only capable of committing evil, what meaning will that have?"

Viridian stared straight ahead as he began to realize something that his father taught him, he began to realize what his father was trying to tell him when he taught him his values.

"If there was nothing that led away from God, then God would be a tyrant." Viridian recounted quietly, "I think I am beginning to understand that now."

Gandalf nodded, "Indeed Viridian, this is your battle." he placed a hand on his shoulder, "Fight it well." the Wizard then left leaving Viridian to his own revelations.

Viridian stood there for hours; noticing it was getting darker. Before he turned to leave he looked to the sky, saying aloud: "I think I am beginning to understand your riddles, dad. I only hope that one day I can see you again." Viridian turned back to the way he came from his eyes full of fire, "but first I have my battles ahead of me."

The next day their was an anxiousness among the company of Thorin, the Jedi, Jane's men, and Jak even. Tomorrow was the day of the judicial duel. Tomorrow they would be seeing their friend and brother stepping into the arena with a monster, and only one of them would emerge alive. But deep down, most of them knew it was possible that the man entering the arena could also turn into a monster.

Viridian spent that day lightly training and in meditation. When dusk came, Viridian spent the entirety of the night meditating; allowing the force to flow through him and to center him. While in his meditation he felt Kes approach him from behind. He could tell that she was wearing her night clothes and that she was nervous... scared even.

Viridian turned to look at her, "Heya, Kes."

Kes swallowed and walked around him so she was in front of him. She knelt before him, her eyes level with his, "Viridian…" she trailed off, unsure of what to say. Her eyes trailed to the floor between, and she shivered slightly.

Seeing this, Viridian pulled her into a hug and allowed her to cling to him. She shook and refuse to let go, feeling that if she did he would disappear as if in some dream. Viridian swallowed. Tomorrow there would be three outcomes: one where he walked out of the arena, and two where a monster did. Viridian knew that tomorrow would be the hardest battle of his life. Tomorrow would be his trial of the spirit.

Viridian rested his forehead against hers.

"Kes, I don't know what'll happen in the arena." he began, he looked into her amethyst eyes, "I want… no, I **need** to tell you something."

"What?" she whispered, her voice fearful and trembling.

"Kes… even though we've been together for less than a few days as… well, a couple, we've been friends for as long as I can remember. I," he swallowed, almost losing his nerve, "I want to ask you… if… if you will stay with me? Tonight?"

Kes looked up from his shoulder, staring longingly, almost pleadingly into his eyes. Her face trembled slightly, withheld tears gathering in the corners of her pupils. She clutched him tight, holding him for all she was worth. She nodded once, and her voice broke, "Viridian, please... don't lose who you are."

She felt his hand on her cheek, caressing her softly. He brought her to him, to his eyes. And in them, she felt something that she had not felt in him before. Viridian was terrified.

"I'll try," Viridian whispered. She shook her head, her hands working through his torso, wrapping around him. They drew closer to each other; Kes silent for long stretching minutes. Then, she broke it with a plead:

"No, Viridian. Don't try. Just… just come back to me, as you are no. Promise me that."

"Kes…" Viridian sighed, but before he could finish Kes cut him off sharply, her face coming so close that their noses touched and he could feel her breath on his cheek:

"Promise me."

Viridian did not answer. How could he? He couldn't… he **wouldn't** lie to her. Not to her. Because the truth was he didn't know. He just… didn't.

Instead, he could only stare at her in mute fascination. For long moments, he thought he would drown in the violet pools of her eyes. And in this, the world around them bleed into the background. It became irrelevant, even for just a few moments. Here and now, with her… that was what mattered. Because in the end, he knew, he probably wouldn't get another chance.

Viridian caressed her cheek, brushing back loose strands of hair. Then his hands wound in the hair, gripping softly the back of her neck. Her grip on his muscular shoulders tightened like the coils of a snake as they remained still in the cold air, waiting for a silent, unspoken invitation. Then without conscious thought, they closed the distance; their respective worlds consumed by the other. They closed their eyes as their emotions ran through them, allowing things to take their natural course.

When they broke apart, Kes sighed longingly; the exhaust of her warm breath hot against his cheek. Viridian had never seen her so beautiful before. In the dark, she glowed to him. Here, she was… more. Something beyond just words. It chased away the shadows, the pain… it left him with just this. A feeling of content, a feeling of peace.

But there in the dark lay whispers. He did not understand them in what said, but in what they meant. And he was left feeling… cold. And in the exchange of the Force, he could feel the same from her. Worse, even. He grasped her, pulling her to him, holding her. He would not let go, and she would not leave.

And so they held each other. Basking in the company of the other, awaiting the coming dawn...

When the sun began to rise in the east casting the mountains' long over the elven city, Viridian opened his eyes and looked down at Kes still sleeping in his arms. He whispered to her, "If I could make that promise I would… but I don't know if I can keep it," he kissed her forehead, and waited for her to wake up.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him, her eyes quivering, "So it wasn't a dream."

Viridian smiled, "No, it wasn't," then a pained expression washed over his face as he whispered, "But dream or no, it's time to get up."

Kes clenched her eyes shut, "I-I know."

Viridian kissed her forehead again, "Thank you for being with me," he whispered lovingly, giving her a gentle squeeze.

Kes shuddered and she hoped there would be more moments like last night and right now in the future. The more she thought about it she wanted to build a future with him, but in order to do that both of them would need to conquer their inner demons.

Viridian stayed with Kes for the entirety of the morning. He even did his stretches and training with her right beside him. Then as it was approaching eleven in the morning, the couple sat on a lover's seat overlooking the valley, the two of them engrossed in conversations about how the new Jedi order could be structured.

"I was thinking, we obviously need a code of conduct, and the ability to discipline any jedi that does do something they shouldn't but how do you think we could do that?" Viridian asked.

Kes tilted her head in thought, "Well, I think it depends, what exactly have they done?"

Viridian was about to give a situation when he saw Glorfindel approach them. The couple stood up and bowed to him as a sign of respect, "My lord." Viridian said.

"Viridian," Glorfindel nodded and bowed, his face slightly grim, "It is time."

Viridian nodded his eyes hard, "Please my lord, lead the way?" he asked respectfully.

Glorfindel bade them to follow him. Kes walked beside Viridian, and took his hand. Viridian turned to look at her and Kes smiled, "I will always be by your side." she told him.

Viridian could tell she meant it dearly. Viridian leaned in and with as much sincerity as he was capable of whispered into her ear, "I love you." and kissed her. Kes kissed back, trying to make the most out of the moment, before they broke apart. Kes sighed, "I guess we have to go now."

Viridian nodded. Hand in hand they followed Glorfindel to the arena, entering a small stadium. The arena itself was about thirty feet in diameter with the seats up above it to prevent the spectators from getting hurt. All of his friends were in the waiting area for him just outside the gate. Xey turned to the gate, her tone weary and morbid: "this is the point of no return, we can't follow you beyond it." she explained.

Viridian nodded quietly, and took out his lightsaber, Ringil, and the magic ring and laid them on the table, since he was only allowed a simple sword and no armor, and he wouldn't tarnish Ringil with this fight.

"Whatever happens today," Viridian began.

"Don't give us that." Janus cut him off, "We'll do what we must."

Viridian nodded in appreciation

Kes turned to him and gave him another kiss.

"For luck." she told him

Viridian smiled at her, then turned to the gate, and with a deep breath stepped through into his trial.

 **AN: before any of you ask no Viridian and Kes did not go that far, this story is rated T and I will keep explicit sexual content out of it! Now the next chapter will see the fight between Viridian and Keen and ooh boy I look forward to it. See you all on the next chapter.**


	23. Trial by Combat

**AN: well that was quick, again special thanks to Jacob sailer for helping me with the chapter, I love it and I am sure you guys will too.**

 **Trial by Combat**

 **The Elven Stadium**

Viridian was now dressed in the ceremonial garb of the judicial duel: a form-fitting white tunic with a gray patch over his heart and on his wrists were black and gold wraps Viridian had personally requested.

Viridian may have butted heads with Mandalorians in the past, Jak especially, but Viridian did appreciate their culture in a lot of things, especially their color idea. Black for the pursuit of justice, gold for the pursuit of revenge, and grey to signify the mourning of a loved one... Vesse.

Viridian closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose, and breathed out to calm himself. He opened his eyes, and grabbed the sword off the rack. He walked out into the middle of the arena where a fence divided the two halves. On the other side were the glowing red eyes, glaring hotly at him. There was a time when Viridian would never have expected the face of one of his friends could be capable of such hatred. Sure, the Clones were capable of hate but never at him or the Jedi that had actually cared. The hatred that came off this particular Clone of Jango Fett was one truly unnerving. So much so, he actually wondered if he were facing a Sith Lord.

Viridian own emotions were bubbling under the surface but still remained under control, much like a pot of water as it heated up before it erupted into a boiling mess. Viridian breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth and as if he poured some cold water into the pot, the water cooled.

Viridian saw in his peripherals Lord Elrond rise from his chair and speak with authority.

"Today we are here to behold the tradition of justice. Viridian Mallory, son of Jon Mallery, Padawan of the Jedi order," Elrond listed off the names, "has lain accusations against one Keen, son of Jango, for war crimes and the murder of thousands of non combatants. Before we proceed Viridian do you wish to revoke any of your accusations and drop the matter?" Elrond asked.

Viridian shook his head, "No my lord."

Elrond sighed, "Then so be it. The rules are this: you are permitted to use whatever means of might you have in your disposal to subdue or slay your opponent. If you possess magic you are not allowed to use it lest you void the claim and by default lose the bout. The fight is to the death, or to when your opponent can no longer fight. May justice be granted today."

Viridian assumed the opening stance of Djem so: the sword held up over his head. As the fence was lowered, Keen snarled. And when the gate finally lowered, Keen charged.

Viridian's eyes widened and he sidestepped the charge as he remembered that Keen's skeleton may have been reinforced with some kind of metal. He cursed. That was going to make this all the more difficult.

Keen came to a stop and swung at Viridian's head. The young Jedi parried the blow, and smacked Keen in the face with his palm. Keen swept with his arm, catching Viridian in the side with a deft blow. Viridian moved with the blow and regained some distance; holding the sword in front of him now.

Keen looked at the grey patch on Viridian's tunic, and smirked, "Who was it?" he asked, "Friend, lover, family… ah that girl." he grinned, "I must say, she was very easy. The way her windpipe caved in as I applied the pressure with my own hands a truly cathartic experience."

Viridian's teeth clenched, and he glared at the monster. The darkness within him whispering to kill this monster, to embrace his power. Destroy him. Claim his revenge. Viridian fought against the temptation. He however, could not resist striking at Keen wildly.

Keen smiled inwardly as he dodged the strike and slashed across Viridans chest. The wound was shallow but it still stung. Keen then brought his knee into Viridian's chest. Viridan moved with the blow and parried the following strike, then grabbing Keen's wrist and throwing him over his shoulder; causing Keen roll to his feet some six feet away.

Keen snarled and charged again. Viridian dodged his strike then cut his forearm, following up with slashing the other one and kicking him in the chest to create some distance.

Keen looked at the cuts on his forearms, and chuckled, "So you do care." a snarl came upon his face, "Obviously not enough!"

Viridian's anger grew, and his grip on his sword tightened. His teeth clenched.

"If you had you would've saved her!" Keen exclaimed with a laugh, as he charged.

Viridian's eyes narrowed into slits, the voices within him grew louder. He sidestepped and parried the blow only for Keen to bring his knee into his side, causing him to drop his sword. Keen then grabbed Viridian's face and slammed him into the ground. He loomed over him triumphantly, a wicked smile playing on his lips.

"Don't worry, though," he raised his blade over his head, aimed for Viridian's heart, "you'll see her again soon."

Viridian raised his hand as the blade came down. A sickening moment later, the blade struck. It slid through Viridian's palm until the hilt became flush with it. In the moment of pain, the hand had twitched just enough to veer it off its target, imbedding the point into the ground.

With a scream, Viridian struck the flat of the blade at its weakest point with his free hand, breaking it in two. He then kicked Keen in the face, causing him to roll backwards. Viridian then sprang up and removed the broken sword from his hand; tossing the broken weapon to the side. It had missed the bones but still, he couldn't form a fist properly anymore.

"You think I need a sword to kill you?" Keen smirked, "I didn't need one for her. I'll just kill you with my hands!" with that Keen charged again. Viridian blocked his first blow, countered with one of his own, then smacked him across the face. Viridian then struck Keen in the knee with a sweeping kick before launching into a roundhouse; tagging the monster in the side of the head. Viridian then launched a palm strike straight for his head.

Keen moved his head to the side; catching the hand He then twisted the arm and held it at an odd angle at the elbow, forcing Viridian to his knees as he feared that his arm would be broken. Keen's forefinger and thumb pinched the stab wound in his palm with a vice like grip. When Viridian attempted to strike out at Keen with his free hand, Keen just applied more pressure; dropping Viridian with a sudden thrust of pain. He laughed.

"You Jedi really are predictable. Tell me something, Viridian. How did it feel?"

Viridian look up, glaring at his torturer as his smile widened.

"How did it feel when you heard it? The sound of her throat cracking beneath my hand? Have you ever heard such a beautiful sound before? No? Well, I can certainly tell you, it was the most… pleasurable I've heard in a long while."

Viridian's face began to warp. His snarl widened as his eyes struggled to hold back his tears.

"Yes. Yes, there it is. The face. I remember it from that night. Your look of… failure."

Viridian felt his tears fall despite his protest. He failed. He couldn't win. No matter how hard he fought, no matter what he couldn't save her. He couldn't even avenge her death by the rules of the duel. He couldn't win.

" _Uncle Vidy!" her voice called out._

Viridian let out a breath as the memories came flowing through his mind. How he and Vesse along with everyone in their posse got into trouble at the temple, playing stupid pranks. Her begging him not to go to the front lines when the war broke out. Her eternal excitement when they came back from the campaigns. One memory sprang up after he came back when some of the Jedi had fallen to the darkside.

" _Uncle Vidy!" She exclaimed, "you're back."_

 _Viridian smiled at her, "Yeah I am." he noticed however that she looked more relieved than usual, and that she was holding back tears, "What's the matter sweetie?_

" _I was afraid. I had heard that some of the masters had fallen to the darkside... I was scared that you were too." she buried her face into his chest._

 _Viridian swallowed, "Vesse look at me." he told her. She looked up at him, her brown eyes staring into his green ones, "I would never sell my soul like that. You, your daddy, grandpa, grandma and all your uncles and aunts mean too much to me to do that to them."_

" _What if someone were to hurt us?" she asked_

" _I will fight tooth and nail to keep you safe, but I won't doom myself to save you as I would only end up hurting you."_

" _Promise?" she asked him._

Viridian was crying now his head bowed, "I p...promise." he answered, the darkness within him screamed and faded away as he made the choice.

Keen's grin grew. The boy seemed to have lost his mind now.

Viridian breathed in through his nose, and out through his mouth, closing his eyes. He wouldn't tarnish her memory by falling to the Dark Side. He wouldn't tarnish the goal in this fight by using his power to destroy Keen. Viridian sighed as he let go, 'your will be done.'

"Good bye, Jedi." Keen then raised his arm to deliver the killing blow, and with a vicious thrust, he struck. But instead of hitting the middle of the boy's temple, his fist struck Viridian's open hand; catching it in mid-flight.

Keen suddenly saw that Viridian looked back up at him, his eyes full of a divine fury. Viridian began to rise, bending his arm back in the right way. Keen struggled to keep his hold, but somehow Viridian only grew stronger and in one swipe, he broke free. Keen stepped away, utterly astounded and for the first time since his time on Kamino did he know the cold touch of fear.

With a snarl, Keen threw a punch, but Viridian blocked it. Keen struck with his other arm, but Viridian blocked that one too. Keen attacked again and again, but Viridian effortlessly blocked every single blow like he was swatting away dragonflies. Viridian then unleashed his own barrage, landing half a dozen strikes on Keen and sending him hurling to the ground.

Keen roared and attacked again. Viridian blocked the first of his blows, swing Keen's fist underneath his armpit, and trapping it in a vice like grip before twisting it with a snarl. As Keen screamed, Viridian went to town. He stuck Keen in the throat and face repeatedly, blood splattering from his blows. Blocking any strikes that he threw at him while dishing out the punishment, the procedure went on for a long stretching minute. After it was over Keen collapsed to his knees unable to stand, his face a ruin.

"H-how?" Keen asked in disbelief.

Viridian stared at him, "Her name was Vesse, and she was my niece."

Keen glared at him, a feral smile spread across his lips, "How do you plan on killing me?"

Viridian breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth again, drawing his arm back like a spring. He then struck and with thrust, smashed Keen's nose in with a palm strike, breaking the supporting bone behind the mad Clone's nose and driving it into his brain. Keen's eyes widened, his mouth a gasp as he drew in pain filled breath.

Keen sat there for a moment, unable to move as pain reached across him mind like fire, "I… I… I don't... understand." Keen whispered, his body trembling as the world before him disappeared as though he'd gone blind. One by one, his senses went; leaving only his hearing for a brief few more seconds.

Viridian stood there, and let out a haggered sigh, "Rest now... and suffer no more." he bade him. With that, Keen drew his last breath and slumped back to the floor; unmoving and as cold the ground that held him.

Viridian closed his eyes, and unwrapped the gold colored wrapping and dropped it to the floor; telling himself he would no longer pursue revenge. His work… was done. Vesse could rest easier now.

With the silence that followed came a sudden joyful cheer that shook the arena with its intensity.

"The challenge has been completed," Elrond suddenly boomed from high above, "Viridian, son of Jon, Padawan of the Jedi… you are the victor," he said with a warm smile.

Viridian opened his eyes and looked up at Elrond along with everyone else, "No my lord, I am not a padawan anymore. This was my final trial. I am a Jedi Knight."

As he said this, the gate behind him opened. And as he turned, Kes was upon him: desperately and joyfully enveloping him in a hug that nearly sent the pair of them toppling to the floor. This was quickly followed by Jane, hugging the pair of them tightly. In that moment neither wanted to let him go and tears flowed down their cheeks.

Viridian embraced them warmly, his own tears joining them as the rest of his companions stormed into the arena, circling them and roaring out merrily with cheers and hurrahs. For the first time in years, Viridian felt something that he thought he would never feel again. He was at peace.

 **AN: So how was that? You like, tell me why, you didn't you're wrong :P I kid, tell me why. Well I hope you enjoyed, I hope to see you in the next chapter, "The New Knight."**


	24. The New Knight

**AN: Man I am on fire with how quick it takes to update this, then again I am now going for smaller chapters instead of big grand ones, Special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help in this chapter.**

 **The New Knight**

Bilbo sat in the garden smoking his pipe; the bout in the arena and the following excitement long since dwindled. The hobbit was pleased Viridian had won, but he was having a hard time understanding it. Such a thing was unheard of in the Shire: the idea that a Hobbit could gleefully kill his fellow was unnerving yet here he saw two men fighting for justice. He just couldn't wrap his head around it.

"My dear Bilbo," Gandalf called, getting the hobbit's attention, "Are you alright? I have been trying to get your attention for a good moment now."

Bilbo looked up in alarm, "Oh I am so sorry, Gandalf. I was just thinking about something"

"Do you mind if I join you?" Gandalf asked holding up his pipe.

Bilbo nodded to the spot next to him, "Please do," Gandalf smiled and sat next to him. He lit his pipe with his magic, and gave it a puff.

"You are wondering what Viridian was doing when he killed Keen." Gandalf stated more than asked

Bilbo looked over at Gandalf and sighed, "I know that he was a monster, but it… just doesn't seem natural."

Gandalf nodded, "Viridian granted Keen a Mercy."

"What?" Bilbo asked.

"'Rest now, and suffer no more'" Gandalf recounted, "Viridian said that to Keen just before he died." Gandalf turned to Bilbo his eyes heavy, "Keen was turned into the monster that he was thanks to wicked Men in power."

Bilbo looked at him in horror, "So Viridian killed him as a mercy?"

"If he hadn't, we would have seen him make Keen suffer before he died, and if he had allowed Keen to live he would have gone on to harm far more innocent people."

Bilbo looked down, "The world seems so different now." he admitted.

"The world truly is a wondrous place," Gandalf smiled with a nod, before adding somberly "but it can also be a very terrible place."

Bilbo chuckled, "It'd be a very boring journey if it wasn't." he quipped.

Gandalf rose an eyebrow, "Indeed, Bilbo. Indeed."

The two sat in silence for a moment, blowing smoke rings. After Gandalf relaxed with Bilbo, the old wizard turned to him, "Come Bilbo, there is a ceremony to be had."

"What?"

Gandalf smiled, "Viridian passed his final trials. According to his order's customs he has become a knight. They have asked me to perform the ceremony tonight."

Bilbo nodded in understanding, "I see. Where is this being held?"

"The main hall." Gandalf informed him, "at five o'clock."

"I will be there."

 **The Main Gate**

Viridian stood up on the main gate leading out of the city as he watched the sun descend, turning the sky orange and red before it got dark. He heard a pair of armored foot falls coming towards him.

"Heya Jak." Viridian greeted, turning to face him.

Jak looked at Viridian, "I thought you were supposed to be resting, considering the beating he gave you."

Viridian looked back across the valley, "I didn't want to miss the sunset. I asked Kes if she wanted to come, but she said there was something she had to take care of."

Jak smirked, "You two have gotten pretty close recently."

Viridian smiled, "I love her very much."

"I know that feeling." Jak agreed.

"Still surprised you haven't asked Ulra to marry you yet." Viridian shook his head, "What are you waiting for?"

Jak stood there for a moment, "... Peace."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, but decided to drop it. It was Jak's choice to waste his time with it.

Jak sighed, "Viridian," he began, "I feel I should apologize."

Viridian turned to Jak, "For what?"

"I am sorry if at all I made it seem like I was downplaying the suffering you went through, or asking you to forgive the Clones. It was never my intention."

Viridian faced him, "Jak, I should apologize for making it sound like I hated the Clones," Viridian closed his eyes, "I still feel angry over what they did at the temple, but I also feel hurt and betrayed. The clones under my command during the early years of the war were the 777th battalion, under Captain Maval. My master, she... cared for them. She had me help train the Clones in different Jedi disciplines and mental exercises. I even had complex discussions with Maval on the history of the Order and the Republic. He… he was my friend."

Jak rose an eyebrow, "What makes you think that he betrayed you?"

Viridian sighed, "I really don't know." he admitted, "I can only hope that he didn't join the Empire."

"Hopefully we'll find out one day." Jak said optimistically.

"Yeah."

"Why did you bow to me when you apologized for threatening me?"

Viridian sighed, "It's something my father taught me. When you truly felt you did something you make yourself small and humble compared to the one you transgressed against. That's what it was about. Didn't realize that you would practically spit in my face at it though."

"I did not spit in your face." Jak countered.

"No, you did." Viridian said, "If you did truly forgive me, you wouldn't have acted the way you did. But I didn't expect you to forgive me so it is what it is." Viridian shrugged.

Jak just stood there, "You threatened me!"

"I know." Viridian responded evenly, "I said somethings that I am not proud of. I don't blame you I fully expected you to not forgive me. I had hoped you would but it wasn't to be."

"I thought you were begging." Jak snarled, "I can't stand begging. I prefer action."

Viridian sighed, "Jak, there are times where begging is all you can do, and even if you act in a way where you can be seen by all and that is why you are doing it, then that action has no worth. 'Sometimes, the most pious of people are the most corrupt.' My father also taught me that." Viridian narrowed his eyes, "and in many ways, he was right." thoughts of Palpatine entered his mind.

Jak sighed, "Look I get it. What happened to all of you was terrible and I guess I did not make the point clear or said it at the wrong time."

Viridian shrugged, "I didn't tell you everything that had happened. You couldn't have possibly known how close Vesse and I were." Viridian let out a shuddering breath.

"How do you feel?"

Viridian considered it for a moment, "Like a giant weight has been lifted off my chest."

"That's good."

"But the journey is far from over."

"Indeed." Kes's voice said as she came up and embraced Viridian from behind.

Jak chuckled, "I'll leave you two alone." with that he left to go find his own love.

Viridian took of of Kes's hands and kissed it, "You made it."

Kes smiled as she looked at the sunset, "Yeah."

The couple stood there in silence, watching the sun descend; turning the sky orange then finally red.

Viridian had tears in his eyes and they began to fall, "I miss her Kes, I miss her so much." he admitted.

Kes moved to his side and pulled him into a hug, "I miss her too."

"I wish she was here." Viridian weeped.

Kes just held him. Vesse was a sweet girl, one whom they had all come to love just as much as Vega. Kes had grieved for her a long time ago. She still missed her, but she knew that in many ways Viridian had put it off. So, she would be here for him now.

"I keep going over it in my mind. Was there anything I could have done to save her?" Viridian asked

Kes pulled away, "Viridian you did all that you could, and I am sure that if Vesse would say it she could. She never blamed you and she still loves you."

"But…" Viridian began, Kes shook her head.

"No buts, Viridian." Kes told him gently, "she had no vindictive bone in her body. She would tell you, 'I love you Uncle Vidy. Thank you.'"

Viridian clenched his eyes shut, "I love you too, you're welcome."

Kes stood their comforting Viridian for a good ten minutes, holding him tightly to her as he wept silently.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to get so emotional." Viridian apologized.

"Viridian, it's alright. Part of being together, We'll need to support each other."

Viridian chuckled, "Anything you want to cry about?"

Kes shook her head, "Not right now," she stopped for a moment, "actually there is one thing."

She leaned in, resting her head against his chest and Viridian in turn resting his chin on her head, "Thank you for being the better man in the arena."

Viridian let out a breath, "It wasn't easy,"

Kes shook, "I know. I heard what he was saying."

Viridian held her, "What kind of person does that? And takes pleasure in it?" Kes asked.

"A sick man." Viridian answered

They stood there in silence as the sun disappeared in the distant horizon.

Kes let out a contented sigh, "Well come on let's get inside."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "What?"

Kes just smiled at him, "I can't tell you, it's a surprise."

"So is an ambush." Viridian quipped

"Hey let's leave the war outside." Kes quipped back with a smile as they walked to the grand hall.

"Seriously what is this about?" Viridian asked as they drew closer.

"Do you trust me?" Kes asked.

Viridian smiled and kissed her, "Completely." he answered when he broke it off.

Kes smiled back, "Trust me now."

Viridian nodded and opened the door to a darkened room, the only source of light coming from the door. Before he could breathe, the door suddenly closed; blackening the room in pitch darkness.

Then one by one, seven lightsabers ignited in a circle; most of them either being blue or green, with one being white. He could see the faces being illuminated by the lightsabers. They were his friends… his family: Du, Janus, Xey, Kes, his brother Jane, Lord Elrond with the one that Jaing carried he noticed, and finally Gandalf with his niece's saber.

Viridian's eyes widened, turning to the faces of every man, woman and elf that stood at attention. To each of them: a smile, a look of pride. And when he eventually found Kes, he felt in that moment, content and accomplishment that made him smile like he had never before.

Gandalf spoke, "Step forward, Padawan."

Viridian did so, coming up to Gandalf and taking a knee at his feet. As he did, the others lowered their sabers to point at the ground except for Gandalf who held his up.

"Viridian Mallory, Son of Jon." Gandalf began as he brought his saber over one of Viridian's shoulder, "By the right of the Valar, by the will of the Force, dub thee I do… Jedi."

And with that, Gandalf struck the padawan braid along his shoulder with the most precise of movements. A moment later, with a flash of green, the smoldered remains of the braid laid on the floor.

"Knight of the Old Republic."

Viridian stood to his feet, "Thank you Gandalf, but there is still much to do and learn."

Gandalf smiled, "Indeed."

"Three cheers for Viridian Jedi Knight!" someone in the darkness exclaimed, the crowd erupted, the room suddenly became lit and there they were the company of Thorin, all cheering and singing merrily, that night was spent in merry celebration.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. See you in the next chapter.**


	25. The Map and the Commander

**AN: well hello readers, I am back with a new chapter, and I will also be putting up the edited versions of the prolog, Chapter one, and Chapter two soon, until then enjoy this chapter**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my Characters, and special thanks to Jacob Sailer.**

 **In Memory of Dylan Libel my most cherished friend**

 **RIP.**

 **1998-2017**

 **The Map, and the Commander.**

Jane sat with his squad during the celebration, staring into bonfire as Niles asked at his elbow, "Cap'n, what are we going to tell the commander?"

Jane sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "The Yuuzhan Vong are more of a threat."

"Yes, but the Jedi are, according to our superiors, still enemies of the state." Alaya stated.

Jane's eyes hardened as he tightened his grip on his mug, "A state that orders members of my family to die because of their beliefs doesn't deserve my loyalty."

Dex could only sit there with Jaing sitting next to him, the pair of them staring wide-eyed at Jane, "Sir, it sounds like you are defecting."

Jane glared into his mug, the ale splashed and was agitated by the sound of the room, "I would resign if I could," Jane admitted, his voice rising in tone with each syllable, "but now I can't let it slide the Emperor had my brother hunted, and my daughter…" he stopped short and looked away.

The Squad looked among each other, "You have a daughter, sir?" Dex asked surprised.

Jane felt his tears drop, "Had." he corrected.

The squad went silent, "Vesse Allie Mallory." Jane whispered her name, "Keen killed her in the temple, under orders of our Emperor." Jane spat, looking up at Dex with eyes full of ire, "So tell me now, if I were to defect, would you look at me in disdain? Or understanding."

"No Cap'n, we wouldn't judge you for it," Niles said, his hand on Jane's shoulder "in fact, if I may say so for myself, I'd go so far as to say I'd go with you." Niles looked back at the Jedi. Some of them were dancing, mostly Viridian and Kes. Du was sitting due to the fact that he was still disallowed from any strenuous activity and the others were mingling, "Its hard to believe that they betrayed the state. I've fought by their side." he turned back to the men, "and they don't strike me as the monotone, asexual monks we've all heard about. Those two right there," Niles pointed at Viridian and Kes, "are head over heels for eachother."

"How do you know that?" Dex asked.

"I can tell, rook," Niles grinned, "when you get to my age, of course."

"You have only just met them," Jaing deadpanned.

"Well then, please enlighten me." Niles said turning to Jaing, his smile inviting a challenge, "separate the propaganda from the truth."

"Well for one, the Jedi were asexual monks." Jaing said, "those two are breaking the rules of their order."

"He's not wrong." Jane shrugged, "and the Order did take children away from their families at a young age. Viridian was lucky in that his master wanted him to have a relationship with us. A few other Jedi did this but they were the exception to the norm."

"Ah I see." Niles said, turning back to Jaing, "What about their wartime practices? I understand that you fought alongside them in the Clone Wars."

Jaing pinched the bridge of his nose, "They did make a lot of stupid decisions." Jaing began, "sending kids as young as eleven into warzones, giving them the rank of commander without earning it."

"...weren't you clones technically ten years old at the beginning of the war?" Dex asked.

"Yes, but we were made for fighting. Jedi were not."

Jane nodded, "I am with Jaing on this one. It was incredibly stupid of the Jedi to send children into battle. Though in many ways, I could see why they did."

"Why is that?" Alaya asked curiously, though the tone in her voice showed she despised the decision.

"Well, on Geonosis the Jedi suffered tremendous casualties, losing many knights and masters in that battle. Out of the two hundred sent, I believe only thirty came out alive." Jane explained

"Damn. That's a serious attrition rate." Niles whistled.

"Thirty three actually. One hundred seventy nine Jedi died out of two hundred and twelve, along with thousands of troopers, four thousand nine hundred eighty two commandos, three fourths of theta squad, approximately twelve thousand troopers seriously injured, and another eight thousand lightly injured." Jaing listed off, "that was the casualty count of the first battle of Geonosis."

"You were there weren't you?" Jane asked curiously

Jaing sat there for a moment before he nodded slowly "Yeah."

Niles noticed the silence drift between them, "So they got a few customs that I might not agree with, but in all honesty it doesn't seem like a good enough reason to kill them. Well, I still hate what that kid did to Cyrus," he growled as he pointed at Janus, "But," he began his expression softening as he folded his hands in front of him "at the same time can I blame him for trying to defend himself?"

Jaing sighed, "I am not sure you can."

Alaya looked among her squad mates, "This is a bit unusual."

"What?" Dex asked.

"We're doing the one thing a soldier is not supposed to do." Niles said, as he turned to Dex, "We're thinking."

"That's one way of putting it." Jane sighed. "The ones in power, Dex, don't want us asking these questions. There is a time to defend our home, family, and lives, but when we are killing people for no real good reason, with very flimsy evidence, a soldier that asks 'Why am I doing this?' Well, that is far more dangerous than any enemy."

"So our fight with the Vong?" Dex asked.

"Considering their stance on us, I'd say they deserve every bit of hell we can give them." Alaya answered.

Jane nodded, "If a peaceful solution can be pursued and we're going to war regardless, then there is something wrong. But the Yuuzhan Vong and the Orcs don't seem too keen on having peace until we are beneath their heel."

Dex sat there in thought, "But what if our conquest is beneficial to the population? I mean look around. this world could use some of the stuff we could provide."

"Absolutely." Jane agreed, "our medical technology alone could probably increase the life expectancy of the human beings on this world, since the elves don't seem to need it other than treating wounds. And that's not even considering the other things we could provide. And honestly, if hypothetically push came to shove, could they really stop us?"

"No, not really." Dex said.

"No and I wonder how these people would be treated with our Empire ruling over them. Would we be seen as heros? Or monsters?" he asked them.

Jaing looked at him, "I think that they'd be treated well they are all human looking enough, even more so than the chiss."

"Maybe." Jane agreed, "But considering our Emperor's view on people with Jedi like abilities, I fear for the elves."

"...that might be an issue yeah." Niles agreed.

"Uh sir?" Dex began, "That still doesn't answer what we are going to tell the commander."

Jane looked at the others. "Commander Libel seems to be a reasonable man. I think that he would agree that the Vong are more of a threat than the Jedi are… at the moment." Jane said.

"And what about when that Moment is up?" Niles asked.

Jane could not answer the question with any degree of certainty, "I do not know." he admitted, "I will step out and contact him." Jane stood up from his seat and made his way to the door on his way he patted Viridian on the shoulder, "Congratulations little brother."

"Thanks, where are you going?" Viridian asked.

"Just outside need some fresh air." Jane saw that Kes was waiting patiently for the brothers, "a bit of advice," Jane said to them, "Cherish the time you have together you never know when this will all be but a memory." with that he walked out.

Once he was outside he pulled out his holo comm, "Raven to Wolf Den, come in Wolf Den."

Not two seconds later a miniature holo figure appeared. He was an old man, his hair becoming grey and wrinkles of old age present. His eyes, however, were full of experience and wisdom.

"Ah Captain Mallory, good to hear from you. What news is there to report?"

"Commander Libel," Jane began, "the enemy force that attacked Rivendell has been repelled with our aid... along with the Jedi."

The commander rose an eyebrow, "You did what you have to do, son. What is your assessment of these Jedi?"

Jane sighed, "They are young, sir. Sixteen to seventeen at the most, but they fought in the Clone Wars. They are emotionally taxed and mentally fatigued but they are still fighting."

"It's not at all surprising," Libel said with a nod, "they must have been fighting nonstop for six years now."

Jane was surprised by this. He didn't know the Commander very well but to hear him express sympathy for these jedi gave him a little hope, "Sir, I think we should work with these Jedi in kicking the Yuuzhan Vong off the planet."

"Of course." Libel said, "It will take a few months for the Inquisitors to get here." Libel sighed regretfully but the emotion was so subtle Jane barely heard it, "they'll do what they must."

"Sir," Jane began, "I don't think we should let these Inquisitors hurt these Jedi."

"I can't interfere with Inquisitorial affairs. You know that, Captain. The Jedi will have to deal with them, themselves."

Jane swallowed the lump in his throat, "I understand, sir."

Libel pinched the bridge of his nose, "Son, why are you so hellbent on keeping these Jedi alive?"

Jane stood their for a moment, "Permission to speak freely, sir."

Libel nodded "Go ahead."

"I believe order 66 was a bad order and it should not have been used on the Jedi as a whole. Against Krell or others like him I could see it, but all of them? Commander, without strong mountains of evidence, that doesn't make any sense."

"I agree."

"But sir," Jane began before his brain processed what the commander said "wait what?"

"Son, I have fought in the Yinchorri crisis and the Stark Hyperspace war. I have fought alongside Jedi for most of my career. While much of what they do I may not agree with, they were still the heroes of the Republic. It honestly surprised me that after all the battles that they went through during the four year long war, the clones actually followed that order."

"I can't understand it either. Jaing doesn't really talk about it. He was there during operation Knightfall. He told me about what happened in the temple with him. It's... I don't know anymore." Jane sighed, his voice when he brought up Jaing tensed.

"Do you have a problem with your XO son?"

Jane sighed, "Jaing withheld vital information from me about the Jedi."

"What information?"

Jane looked down, "One of them is my brother, Viridian."

The Commander's eyes softened in sympathy, "I see."

"I already lost one brother in the war, sir. I won't lose another." Jane stated, "I won't let them die."

"Calm down, Captain. I won't order you to do such a thing. Tell me what happened."

"We helped the Elves repel the Vong and Orcs with the help of the Jedi. Keen attempted to Kill one of the Jedi against my orders in the middle of the battle, and Viridian accused Keen of… war crimes during the operation nightfall, Keen killed children in that battle sir."

The Commander's face remained expressionless, "I assume that Keen was punished for risking the success of this battle for a personal grudge against the Jedi?" he asked neutrally.

"I did. It turns out Keen is an ISB/Inquisitorius agent trying to determine my loyalty to the Empire."

"Did you have him executed?" The commander asked.

Jane gulped, "Not exactly. Viridian killed him in a judicial duel."

Libel rose an eyebrow, "That is a bit odd of you all to do. I would've rather you just shot him and be done with it."

"Me killing an Inquisitorial agent?" Jane asked, "Sir, if they ever found out the ramifications would be terrible for my family."

"But your brother did it."

"... I will admit I did not think that through."

Libel closed his eyes, "Who did Keen kill?" he asked. Jane needless to say wasn't sure how he got it then again the Commander seemed to be able to understand what was going on with his men.

"Keen killed a little girl at the temple. Vesse Alie Mallory... my daughter, Viridian's niece."

Libel opened his eyes, "My condolences. So Viridian killed him in a Judicial duel."

"Yes sir. It served as his final trial to become a knight."

"So he passed." Libel nodded, "Good, what is the plan afterwards?"

Jane shrugged, "The Jedi aren't coming with me. They are helping a small band with their quest. Sir, they don't trust us for good reason, and I refuse to betray Viridian or his friends."

"I will never put you in that position." Libel assured him, "When it comes to it, I will **attempt** to have them incarcerated according to the law. I will do all I can to help them, but I do not trust our laws for these Jedi."

"Sir?" Jane began, "Are you saying that you will do what you must but hope you fail?"

"Captain, do you trust me?" the Commander asked.

Jane nodded, "Of course sir."

"Then trust I will use all the power at my disposal to… take care of this."

Jane let out a breath, "Yes sir."

"There is another thing." Libel began, "We detected a YT series freighter enter the system and avoided the monstrosity that the Vong have."

Jane rose an eyebrow, "What can you tell me about that." Jane asked.

"So far? They landed at the southern tip of Mirkwood. King Thranduil is not interested in wasting his people to investigate it, but we're keeping an eye on them though."

"That's not a lot." Jane said.

"I know that there is a Jedi in that ship. As soon as the probe I sent to investigate it and found him, he crushed the probe." Libel told him.

"Are we sure he's a Jedi?" Jane asked.

Libel tilted his head to the side, "He at least has Jedi abilities."

"I'll ask the Jedi here if they know anything about that." Jane said, "Anything else, sir?"

"That is all I have for now, Captain. Your orders are now to secure an alliance with Lord Elrond and see if now he is willing to enter an agreement with us."

"Will do, sir."

"Wolf Den out." Commander Libel said and cut the signal. Jane deactivated the comm and put it back into his belt, and turning around, coming face to face with Niwen.

"Oh… Hello?" Jane said.

Niwen looked away for a bit, "I just wanted to thank you for your help in getting me away from… him." she said.

Jane rose an eyebrow "Ma'am, I didn't do anything except gave my men orders. If it's anybody you should be thanking it's them."

Niwen nodded, "I fully intend to. I just feel I should thank all of you for being there to help."

Jane smiled, "You're welcome. Please, I will take you to my squad." Jane held out his hand to her.

Niwen gulped and hesitantly took his hand, "Alright." she said meekly.

Jane tried not to make this any more awkward than it already was, and walked back into the hall. His squad was milling about a table with tankards and left-overs, generally just talking about nothing in particular when Niles suddenly saw the pair of them standing in the doorway.

"Grab a seat, cap'n!" he called over, "still more than enough ale for you and… well," he blushed slightly, "I don't suppose the lady drinks ale?"

"I…" she stuttered softly with an embarrassed smile, "never actually drank before."

"Well then," Niles smiled from ear to ear, "no better time to learn than in the company of friends. Please, have a seat."

With that, the squad shifted over as Jane and Niwen did as was beckoned.

"Before I drink." Niwen began as she found her voice, "I want to say something to all of you."

The Squad gave her their attention.

"I want to say... thank you." she said.

Dex looked at her for a moment, "Uh, for what?"

"Thank you... for saving me from that monster, Thank you for risking your life, for some primitive nobody." she wiped away the tears that were cascading down her face, "Just thank you so much."

The squad stared at her in shock, "Lady." Jane began, "You are not some 'Primitive Nobody'."

"The Cap'n's right. We sure as hell weren't going to just leave in the hands of that… man," he growled in disgust.

"I think Demagolka fits far more for that **thing**." Jaing growled, Niwen looked at him then at Jane.

"Demgol was… a terrible person" Jane explained, "He experimented on people like that." Jane said pointing at the Jedi in the room, "The Mandalorians use that name as a means to explain how evil a person is."

"That is a very fitting title for him." Niwen nodded.

"Lady, let us not dwell on that any more, you are welcome and let us celebrate new beginnings." Niles said holding up his mug, the others clanged their mugs together.

"New beginnings!" with that they downed their drinks.

Later that night

Thorin, Balin, Bilbo, Gandalf, Viridian, and Elrond walked into the observatory, the mist falling from the over head cliff with a crystal table in the center of it and the moonlight shinning through the mist, "It appears these Moon runes were written on a midsummers eve, by the light of a crescent moon nearly two hundred years ago." Elrond said.

"Thats one hell of a way to write a letter to yourself." Viridian quipped.

"It is fortunate the same moon shines upon us tonight." Elrond said.

As he spoke the Moon revealed the blue lettering in the dwarvish language, Elrond began to read it outloud, "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun on the last light of Durin's day will shine upon the keyhole."

"Durin's day?" Bilbo asked looking at Balin.

"It is the start of the Dwarves new year," Gandalf answered, "when the last moon of Autumn and the first one of Winter appear in the sky together."

"This is old news." Thorin said, "Summer is passing. Durin's day will soon be upon us."

"We still have time." Balin affirmed

"Time for what?" Bilbo asked

"To find the entrance, we just need to be standing exactly in the right place at exactly the right time. Then and only then can the door be opened."

"So this is your purpose? To enter the mountain." Elrond asked.

"Yes." Viridian answered, "We plan to enter the mountain, kill the dragon and reclaim the rightful home of the dwarves."

"There are some who would not deem it wise." Elrond pointed out, "However, since you helped defend my home from an invasion, I deem that I owe you a debt. As such I will do what I can to help you on this quest."

Thorin's eyes widened, "You will?"

"You will?" Bilbo asked in unison with Viridian.

"How?" Balin asked hopefully.

"I can send word to Thranduil to help you get through Mirkwood swiftly, and those messengers can aid you when you get to Lake Town from there."

Thorin bowed his hand over his chest, "I can see my anger towards your people was misplaced, forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive Oakenshield. I hope that we can forge a strong friendship as I had with Thror when he ruled under the mountain."

"Of course." Thorin said and reached out to shake Elrond's Hand. The Elf Lord smiled and shook hands with the King Under the Mountain.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, I did get a little emotional when I formerly introduced Commander Libel, yeah I hope you all enjoyed see you next chapter.**


	26. The Second White Council Meeting

**AN: Hey guys here I am with a new chapter, it's kind of short but hey it works, special thanks to my good friend Jacob Sailer for helping me edit this.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

 **Now without any further adieu**

 **The Second White Council Meeting**

"What do you mean you are going to help the dwarves reclaim their mountain?" Saruman asked Elrond in utter surprise.

"It means exactly that." Elrond stated evenly.

"Master Elrond, surely you must understand that we shall require your assistance to assail the dark fortress of Dol Guldur?" Galadriel chimed in.

Elrond nodded, "I have not forgotten, my lady. But I will send messengers ahead to Lake Town and the Elves of Mirkwood to request aid for the Company. When our errand is spent in that accursed place, I personally will go to Erebor and aid Thorin with the dragon if he and his company haven't taken care of it already, and the attack afterwards."

"Wait, you expect there to be a fight after we deal with Smaug?" Viridian asked.

"Most certainly. The Mountain and all the treasure it has would be a most valuable prize, not to mention the strategic advantage it grants to the one that possess it." Elrond explained.

Viridian turned to the map of Middle Earth that was hanging on the wall and after a few moments of studying it, he nodded in understanding, "It'd be the perfect place to supply armies and fuel a war, and its basically insurmountable. Only beings of extraordinary power, or high quantities could take it down. Something tells me our enemy has both in spades."

"Especially now with the help of his allies you have met." Elrond added.

Viridian's brows furrowed as he remembered the Uruk Hai and that other attacker that nearly killed Du. The orcs or goblins, as they sometimes are called, were chattel compared to them; only really effective in high numbers to overwhelm the enemy

"So what is it we're dealing with. Is this Sauron himself or just a remnant of his forces?" Viridian asked as he turned to the council.

"How much have you told the boy, Gandalf?" Saruman asked.

Gandalf rose an eyebrow at Saruman, "Everything I deemed important. Such as whom the dark lords are to the great rings."

"You told him of the rings, Gandalf? That is my speciality."

"The Jedi were given magic rings forged by Celebrimbor. He foresaw their arrival and hid these rings away for them, and we naturally informed them of their history." Elrond explained.

Saruman looked at Viridian's hand and sure enough there was a silver ring on his right ring finger, "Intriguing. It's one of the many lesser rings, not one of the rings of power. He wanted to ensure you and your companions would not be influenced by the power of the great rings."

"May I ask how Celebrimbor could have possibly know that we would have arrived over three thousand years after his passing?" Viridian asked the council.

Galadriel smiled at him, "Does it really matter?"

Viridian looked at her, given the way she was smiling he had a feeling she knew something, "I guess it doesn't," he admitted, "I am here now, and I will do what I can to help."

'After all, it's better to focus on the here and now, but still it would be nice to know how he foresaw our coming,' the young knight thought to himself.

"Well, what about after all of this? How are we going to deal with the Vong?" Gandalf asked.

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "That's rather simple, Gandalf. We drive them away. We push them till it's no longer in their best interest to stay here. In short, we make them pay for daring to come to this world."

"But what about after the fact?" Saruman asked, "The free peoples can't possibly hope to defend themselves from a civilization that can travel through the endless fields of the heavens."

Viridian sighed, "No, most of you can't. In a ground war, possibly. But unless the Ainur intervene, you have no chance the moment they decide to bring in their war fleets."

Elrond cleared his throat, "That brings up a good point. Captain Jane told me that their commander has offered us the same alliance they have offered Thranduil and his people. Viridian, I would like to know all the facts. What can you tell me?"

Viridian sighed and stared into the setting sun his eyes closed as he considered his words, before turning back to Elrond, "I don't trust the Empire, Elrond, for a good many reasons," he began. "But… I do trust my brother and if he says that you should take the deal, then take it. But keep your guard up with all of them."

"He hasn't told me much about his Empire," Elrond replied, "He has told me all the benefits of allying with the empire would have for this world, but he has also told me that it might bring about great ill."

Viridian's fist clenched as he looked down, "The Empire," he began his voice tense, "is a very humano centric society. Meaning that they treat aliens, non-humans, badly. Though for this planet, funnily enough, only the orcs would be discriminated against as everyone else is human enough to pass," Viridian looked back up at Elrond the Elf, who sat their contemplating, "The Emperor has no problem with killing beings who possess 'magic' or worse still, making them slaves to his will. Some of the things I have seen," he paused, swallowing, "I'd rather not get into it."

Elrond rose an eyebrow, "If I am going to make a decision, then I must know all the risks."

Viridian's eyes hardened and he looked to the right, the sign that a human was recalling something, "The Jedi who were killed at the temple were lucky. The Empire tortured those that were caught in the hopes that they could be corrupted. If not, then they were killed. There was this… one instance, where Jak and Ulra found the body of one of her friends flayed and gutted like a fish. I then ran into an inquisitor, a Dark Jedi agent of the Empire. He… he was one of my good friends. He had been corrupted by the Dark Side, and I had to fight him. This Empire is an oppressive regime that uses terror to instill its order across the stars, and one where power is concentrated only at the top."

He sighed wearily, and sat with a groan into his chair.

"To be honest, I have no idea if you were to stand against the Emperor who would come out. He defeated Master Yoda, our most powerful and wise Master, and all of you right here," he gestured to each of them, "are just as if not more powerful than him. Maybe you could defeat Sidious," he held up a hand to stop anyone from speaking, "but I am not going to ask you to do that. Sidious is the Jedi's mess to clean up and we will… someday."

"You will likely meet a very painful end, young one." Saruman stated.

"I am aware," Viridian nodded, "but unlike all of you, I am going to die anyway. So I might as well go out and make difference while I can." he chuckled, "so, what exactly are we dealing with?"

"The being that takes up residence in the fortress calls himself the Necromancer. He has the ability to summon the dead."

Viridian sagged, "Why can't it be just something normal for once?!"

"We believe that he might be the Witch King of Angmar." Elrond stated.

Viridian furrowed his brows, "The dark kingdom that destroyed Celebion's ancestral kingdom?" he asked, "The First of the Nine?"

"You know of them, then?"

"Celebion told me about that. I landed in the Barrow Downs, so it does make sense that it would be the Witch King."

"It seems to be that way. We ran into Radagast on the road," Gandalf began as he held up a parcel and placed it on the table, "he found this when he went to that fortress."

Viridian noticed Saruman scowl in contempt at the mention of the brown wizard. However, when Gandalf unwrapped the parcel, his face consorted to horror when it revealed a dark obsidian colored blade as thin as a sheet of ice. Viridian stared at it feeling some kind of abominable energy coming off it, making him sick to his stomach.

Viridian fought against the gag reflex as he felt the same energy emanating from the blade when Kes had been stabbed by that Orc several days ago along the Pass of Caradhras, "What is this thing?"

Elrond stared at the blade, "It's a morgul blade, the personal weapon of the Witch King himself."

"And what does this prove?" Saruman asked, "that Radagast found a weapon of a bygone age."

"Unless I am mistaken, the fall of Arnor happened in this age." Viridian muttered.

"You all know my stance on the subject."

"I don't," Viridian said, "but from what it sounds like you don't want to attack the fortress."

"I fear we simply do not know enough of the fortress or its current defenses. For all we know, this maybe an elaborate trap meant for this council."

"Perhaps it is." Galadriel admitted with a nod, "but if Gandalf's report from a year ago is anything to go by, and the recent finding of Angmar's blade, then something nefarious is going on in that place."

"Gandalf's report?" Viridian asked looking at Gandalf.

Gandalf's face aged considerably as a haunting look came over it, "A year ago I infiltrated that accursed place as an old slave. It was there that I saw the Necromancer preparing for an army of Orcs and conversing with the Nazgul. I also witnessed what they were doing to the prisoners in that place. It was there that I found… the broken remains of Thrain."

Viridian's eyes widened, "Thorin's father?!" then realization struck him like a lightning bolt, "That's where you got the key from! But what happened to Thrain?"

Gandalf shook his head and bowed it in silence. Viridian slumped back into his chair as he knew what that meant.

Viridian sat in silence for a moment, "Did you tell Thorin?"

Gandalf shook his head, "Thrain's mind was broken to the point he couldn't even remember his own name let alone his sons'. Dwarves may be incredibly resilient but even they have their limits. I'd rather Thorin focus on this current task then be bogged down by his father's gruesome fate."

Viridian could understand where he was coming from but at the same time he felt that Thorin ought to know. But he trusted Gandalf to eventually tell the newly crowned King soon. He deserved some closure.

"But if you require more proof, I will go to Dol Guldur again and expose it for what it truly is." Gandalf said to Saruman.

Saruman sat there for a moment before he nodded tensely, "As you say, we will be ready to aide you if it turns out to be true." He did well in hiding it, but Viridian got the feeling that the great wizard was seething on the inside

"Alright, then we shall move to Lorien and get ready to attack from there." Elrond said.

"I will get the Dwarves to Mirkwood then come and join you." Gandalf told them.

Elrond nodded in understanding, "Is there anything else that needs to be said?"

They looked among each other, "I do not believe so," Galadriel said.

"Very well, then this is meeting adjourned." With that Elrond, Galadriel, and Saruman began to file out. Viridian stood up and walked over to Gandalf and held out his hand for him.

"Master Gandalf, are you alright?" Viridian asked concerned

Gandalf looked up at Viridian tears brimming, "I'm sorry. Every time I must remember the suffering in those prisons, it causes my heart to ache."

Viridian nodded in understanding, "I get it, Gandalf."

"I only hope that we can finally put an end to their suffering when we tear that foul place asunder."

Viridian swallowed, "Gandalf, I will go with you."

Gandalf looked at Viridian in surprise, "What?"

"A student's place is by his teacher's side, I will go with you to Dol Guldur. And Niwen will want to come too."

Gandalf stared at him for a moment, "Why would she want to go to that place?"

Viridian took in a breath, "Because her children are in those prisons."

Gandalf rose an eyebrow and Viridian could see that wizard was incredibly fearful of their fates, "She'll tell you more." Viridian said, "It's..." he pursed his lips. "it's not a happy story."

"Viridian, if we are truly dealing with the Nine I may not be able to protect you or Niwen from them."

"In the GAR, there was a code of honor, at least in my battalion," Viridian began, "You watch my back, I watch yours. So, what should I expect from them?"

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I got some good news I got a new job so yeah I don't know how this will effect my time on this story hopefully not as bad as I think it will, we shall see in the meantime I hope to see you in the next chapter.**


	27. Heart to Heart

**AN: hello my readers, this chapter is probably one of the most character development pieces I have written and it might have some sensitive topics just to let you know, I hope you all enjoy, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for editing.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters**

 **Heart to Heart**

Viridian rubbed the back of his neck as he walked down the steps. Some of the things Gandalf told him weighed on his mind but he did give him a good idea of what the Nine's weaknesses were. 'Note to self, always have the things necessary to make a fire.' he told himself.

Viridian came to a stop and smiled as he saw Kes watching the sun setting in the horizon. He walked up and embraced her from behind, whispering, "Hello, Amor," kissing the back of her head as his arms rested on her stomach.

Kes giggled, "Who's Amor?" she asked him.

Viridian chuckled breathlessly, "You are. Amor is another word for love. My father taught us that." Viridian sighed, "Oh, my dad was a great man."

Kes turned her head to look at him, "You miss them, don't you?"

Viridian sagged a little that was all she needed to know, "I wonder what your family is like?" Viridian asked.

Kes swallowed nervously, "I-I never really gave it much thought," she stuttered, "all I know is that they come from the slums of Coruscant… at least, that's what it says on my legal papers."

Viridian nodded in understanding, "Yeah, I can see why they would set up their child for adoption. The slums are no place for a child."

"No, they're not." Kes agreed with a shiver as cold memories welled up within her.

"Kes." Viridian began, "I know that you went down there to look for them. When we … well, when we had that really intimate moment I knew there was a lot of darkness within you. I could almost feel it within you, trying to claw its way out. I need to know. What happened down there?"

Kes said nothing for a long moment. She just stared straight ahead, watching the sun die in bloody spectacle above the mountains. After a moment, Viridian could hear her sniffing and could feel her shiver, "For the longest time Viridian… I hated you." she admitted.

Viridian stood there, waiting for her to further explain what she meant.

"Maybe hatred is too strong a word." she amended, "but I was so jealous that you got to see your family. Whenever you came back and told your stories, it made me so angry. Daniel practically got to see his mother every day and me being the little girl I was, couldn't care for the greater context of either situation. I wanted to have the same opportunity to see my parents… so I snuck out of the temple and into the slums of Coruscant."

Viridian's eyes widened as he turned her to face him; her eyes brimming with tears she looked to be holding it back, "When was this Kes?" he asked, astonished that she would do that.

"When you came back and told us that you were an uncle." she said.

Viridian's eyes were wide as saucers, "Kes we were six years old at that point!" he exclaimed.

"I know." she laughed at her own stupidity as her tears fell, "I was a stupid little girl who wanted what she could not have: a family like yours. It hurts even more that it wasn't till after what happened down there that I realized… I already had a family. In all of you."

Viridian began to feel the sharp pang of guilt now. How the hell had he not noticed this from her? All this pain... and all this hurt, "Kes?" he began cautiously, "What happened down there?"

Kes shuddered, "I ran into my mother." she sobbed quietly, "She… she was a vile woman, Viridian.".

Viridian said pulling her into an embrace, "What did she do?"

Kes buried her face into his chest and shook her head, "She… held me in a dark room for two days. She… sold me! Sold me to men who wanted to… I was so scared when I saw those… those scum, I must have blacked out because… because the next thing I remember is waking up in the halls of healing."

"Kes," Viridian choked out, holding her even tighter, "the amount of darkness that I sensed suggested far more than that."

Kes whimpered, "I… I may have killed them."

"I'm so sorry." Viridian said tightening his embrace on her, "I didn't mean to push you so hard."

Kes sobbed into Viridian as she clutched onto him, "I am so sorry." she cried into him.

"For what?" Viridian asked.

"For harboring such feelings of hatred and jealousy against you. For nearly ruining your privilege to see your family. For… for shedding blood."

Viridian pulled away a little and looked into her tear drenched eyes. His gaze was not of anger, but of love. Of the need to protect her from her own personal demons. "Kes, I forgive you of the first two things, but the third I will never blame you for."

"But Viridian…"

"We don't know if you did even kill those men, and I don't think we ever will. Even if you did, well if you hadn't then you might be in a ditch somewhere and I would have lost one of my most cherished friends. As well as… the woman I love. Besides, you don't have to look any more, we're your family."

Kes hiccuped and nodded. Viridian hugged her tightly, "I am here for you, as you are here for me." he whispered into her ear.

As Kes cried into him, Viridian soothingly rubbed her back all the while he told himself that he would get to the bottom of this, and that if the vile person who did this to her was still around… well, needless to say, Viridian wasn't going to let this go unpunished. But how to do it without tarnishing everything he had accomplished?

Viridian kissed the top of Kes's blonde hair, 'one problem at a time.' he thought to himself as he swayed from side to side, just holding her as she let it out.

Viridian sensed someone behind him. He turned his head to look in his peripherals to see Niwen standing there, watching them.

The young man, still holding his distraught girlfriend, whispered,"One moment, Kes," before making his way up to where Niwen was standing in the shadows.

"Niwen, how long have you been standing there?" Viridian asked.

The Dunedain woman looked away ashamed, as Kes began to feel dread well up inside her.

"I came to find you to ask about the meeting when I saw your interaction."

Viridian sighed, "Of course I did promise I would tell you what Gandalf said," he said, "he's going to want to know the full extent of the situation before we go." he told her.

Niwen gulped, "Alright. I'm... I'm sorry." she apologized to Kes, "I shouldn't have interrupted."

"No, you shouldn't have," Kes sniffled, "what are you talking about, Viridian, go where?"

Viridian turned to Kes, "I was going to tell you soon. I am going with Gandalf. I'll be missing the trek through Mirkwood with you all."

"What why?" Kes asked.

"Because Gandalf is my teacher, and a Jedi's place is by his teacher's side especially when dealing with Necromancers. I will explain it in more detail I promise."

Kes nodded in uncertainty, "Alright, I trust you."

Viridian turned to Niwen, "You will find Gandalf in the observatory."

Niwen nodded and walked off to find Gandalf.

Elsewhere in the bathhouses, Ulra sat in the waterfall in meditation. In this state, she could practically see and hear everything going on in the city of the elves. She had seen Viridian's and Kes's interaction through the force, their presence in it growing exponentially calmer and stronger whenever they had their moments. She knew it was only a matter of time before the friends, now couple, became lovers.

There were all sorts of merriment between the Dwarves and the Imperial squad, mostly from the one called Niles, who's taste in music seemed to really take with the dwarves. He turned out to be a really good singer, introducing songs of his home to the company, much to the chagrin of Alaya, Dex, and Jaing.

Jane was mostly away from it all, off on his own near the gate house. He looked to be putting something together. Ulra could tell that Viridian's brother had been weighed down for the past few days dealing with his own grief, and when she was told by the other Jedi and Jak why, Viridian's behavior with Clones just seemed to snap into sense. Not that she ever held it against the young man to begin with; she actually found the whole situation between him and Jak rather pointless and aggravating to watch. As far as she was concerned, they all had their ways of coping with the trauma of Order 66. She had been fortunate in being far away from the Temple when it happened but most of her fellows had been right in the center of it all. They were allowed their grief.

Ulra saw Niwen approaching Gandalf. Ulra immediately looked away from Gandalf's presence as it was too much to take in, all at once. She was convinced that Gandalf was much more than an ordinary human, or elf. Something about him screamed of divinity. She remembered when she tried to gaze upon the Valar in Aman she very nearly passed out. It almost felt like that with Gandalf.

Ulra drifted back to her thoughts on Niwen. This woman went through some kind of personal hell and yet was still alive. She wondered what drove her to continue on fighting even when she couldn't remember who she was, and was under the brutal possession of a dark and sick man? Whatever it was, Ulra had a healthy respect for this woman, and hoped that her feelings for the Imperial Captain did blossom into a full bloom.

Niwen's father Celebion... if there was one word that she could ascribe to him, it would be stubborn. Even then, it felt like she was under selling him. The man was not a quitter. He would spend years trying to save the most precious person to him left, his daughter, and still keep going. Now that he had found her, he was willing to see his pledge to Thorin fulfilled and even help them against the Empire.

Truly, the Dunedain were an admirable people. It saddened her to learn that they had been reduced to a small tribe of nomads in the north from the Witch King of Angmar. Something about these Black Numenoreans of Carn Dum did not sit right with her. She had a feeling that they're much worse than Celebion had stated though he did tell them everything he knew. She was certain there was more to it then that.

Janus, the only one of their group who while not having been with them since the beginning, had gone through a lot of the same experiences as they had. Janus had lost his home to the tyranny of two organizations, the Knights of Opalka and the Empire, and turning the prince of a once small but proud kingdom on the edge of the galaxy into a refugee. He kept his royal lineage to himself because he didn't want special treatment and wanted true friends who respected the person he was rather than his title.

She could never truly understand it, but as far as she was concerned, the young man was her friend. Now he was talking with Iminye. They have been talking and taking walks for the last few days together, and the Miraluka smiled to herself. There may be something there. It all depended on how they would go about it.

As for Jasmine, Ulra never thought that she would have ever felt such a large amount of regret in one person before. Ulra knew the situation, and to say at the least that as far as the tennates of the Jedi Order were concerned, Ulra respected her for sticking to those principle even though she herself had broken them.

That brought her to Jak, the man she loved. Jak was a great warrior, but at his heart a good man even though he'd made his fair share of mistakes. However, there were times where he was a bit naive, mostly with how he reacted to Viridian's plight with the Clones. She always tried to understand Viridian's point of view. In many ways she could since she was a member of the Order; she grew up with all those people. She knew Jak's heart was in the right place but to her he went about it the wrong way. Now though it appeared that Jak and Viridian had finally gotten along.

Just as she thought this, Ulra sensed Jak approach her. He sat beside her in the waterfall.

"It's almost night, Ulra. You might catch a cold." Jak said to her with a grin.

Ulra chuckled, "A Jedi brought down by the common cold?" she asked humorously, "I think not."

"Yeah? Well, you're probably right. But I wonder…" he whispered conspiratorially, "if the rare cold would do it!"

"Thank the Force it's rare, indeed." she quipped with a sly smile.

"So, what are you doing sitting in the waterfall?" Jak asked as the water cascaded on both of them.

"Meditating." she answered coily.

"Oh?" Jak asked.

"Let's just say there's only one way you will get me to talk." Ulra told him with a smile.

"Oh?" Jak replied with a creeping knowing smile, "And what way is that, exactly?"

She leaned in and whispered into his ear, "What do you think?"

Jak adopted a mock look of contemplation, and Ulra laughed.

"Go on, I will catch up with you later. I am not done yet." she told him.

"Alright, my lady. I shall prepare for our 'interrogation', then" he said playing along.

"I look forward to it." she laughed as he got up, kissing her as he went and left. With that, she drifted back into her meditation.

Now she tried to find Du. He was a bit unusual to her, considering he was one of the strongest members of his class. He also appeared to be the only one who took the events of 66 extremely well in comparison to every other Jedi. He was focussed and disciplined. Even with one of his hearts being destroyed, he still persisted like nothing had changed. Simply put, the young man would not back down.

Then there was Xey, who sat at the top of the waterfall Ulra herself was sitting in. Ulra sagged as she felt the hollowness coming from her. Xey… had probably suffered the most out all of them. Ulra decided that she would go and talk to her personally.

With that, Ulra rose and leapt up through the Waterfall, splashing out and scaring the kriff out of Xey.

"Ah!" Xey screamed falling off her rock and onto the soft ground beneath her, "Ulra, what the hell?" she growled.

Ulra grinned, "Sorry, I couldn't resist." she chuckled.

Xey laughed in response, "You got me,"

Ulra sat down next to Xey, "Xey, is there anything you want to talk about?"

Xey looked away, "I miss Jaran, Ulra. Elrond he… undid everything that the Knights of Opalka did to me," she looked back at Ulra, "So not only can I see, but I can have children one day, but… I can't with the man I wanted to."

Ulra pulled Xey in for a hug, not bothered by the fact that she was only in her undergarments, "From what you have said, this Jaran was a good man if he left this impression on you."

"I just wish you all could have met him."

"Xey." Ulra began, "You have to let him go. He wouldn't want you to spend your days wallowing over him like this."

"Would you do the same if it were Jak?" Xey asked her.

"I would grieve." Ulra said, "Probably for a long time, but he wouldn't want me to spend the rest of my life grieving. Take all the time you need, Xey. We are here to help you with this."

"I...I" Xey stammered, "I hate them!" she cried, her voice breaking into sobbing snarl, "I want them to suffer as they made me suffer, and for what?! Because of Jedi Like Exar Kun, Ulic Qel Droma, Revan and Malak became Sith and the damage they did to the galaxy!? Because almost every single conflict in our history was started by force users!? Well, if it wasn't for the Jedi, where would the Galaxy be now!? Oh that's right, exactly right where it is now!"

Ulra waited till she was done venting

"They called me a kidnapper, a dogmatic fool, and all kinds of other vile crap! What right do they have? They don't know me, they didn't go through what I went through, and they had the gall to accuse me and the Jedi of the exact! Same! Carking! Things! That they themselves were doing, based on what? Propaganda created from the Sith! They made me suffer! They killed and experimented on people because they had the gift of force sensitivity!" she sobbed, she was practically heaving and hiccuping now.

Ulra rubbed her back, "Let it out Xey, breath." she encouraged.

Xey cried into Ulra's shoulder for several minutes till she was reduced to sniffles. And Ulra let her stay like that for as long as she needed, till Xey's breathing became steady and even, telling Ulra that she was exhausted.

With that Ulra picked up Xey bridal style and lept back down into the bath houses. She got herself dressed and took Xey to her bedroom and tucked her into bed.

Ulra walked out the door after Xey drifted off to sleep, and clenched her fist in righteous anger. She would like nothing more than to hunt down the bastards that dared hurt her cub. Ulra realized something in this moment. She may have always subconsciously known it, but now it was clear to her: they were more than her friends, they were her family and she would do her damndest to protect them.

 **AN: So yeah that's it for now, I hope you all enjoyed, the next chapter or the one after that will be the final chapter set in Rivendell where the quest will finally get a move on again, so I will see you all next time.**


	28. The Jedi Paladins

**AN: well this chapter was certainly a long one, not to mention this past week has kind of hectic with my job and all that trying to schedule the computer testing but enough about that, Special thanks to Jacob Sailer for editing and other contributions in this chapter I won't spoil up here.**

 **Disclaimer:Star wars is owned by Lucasfilm and Disney (unfortunately), The Tales of Arda and Middle Earth are owned by Tolkien. Also the songs used in this chapter are owned by Great Big Sea, and the other is an adaptation more infor at the bottom of the chapter.**

 **Without further adieu**

 **The Jedi Paladins**

Viridian had just finished explaining the whole situation to Kes-from what Dol Guldur was, who the potential Necromancer was, to Gandalf's excursion into the dark fortress over a year ago.

Kes looked down for a moment before looking back up at him, "Do you think you can defeat the Witch King?" she asked him.

Viridian shook his head, "Gandalf said that If I were to come face to face with him I should keep my distance, but I believe Gandalf can take him. The others I can probably handle."

Kes nodded, "Viridian, why is Niwen going as well?"

Viridian raised an eyebrow at the apparent jealousy from her, "Kes, it really is not my place to say. Let's just say that she has some… special people in those prisons."

Kes looked a little ashamed, "I see."

Viridian pulled her into a hug, "Hey, you're the only person I have eyes for, okay? Besides, given Niwen's recent behaviour I think she's more interested in my brother."

Kes chuckled, "I hope that your brother does find happiness. He's lost so much already."

Viridian stilled for a moment, "Yes we did." he whispered.

"Viridian?"

Viridian tightened his embrace, "What if this Necromancer isn't the Witch King but… the enemy himself?"

"What makes you say that?"

Viridian swallowed, "Some things Niwen has said. I doubt she would know if it was him, but given her general descriptions and the demeanor of her former master when in that place… it makes me uneasy."

"Then don't go. You don't have to if it makes you this scared. Talk to Gandalf, I am sure he won't hold it against you." Kes told him.

Viridian smiled grimly, and shook his head, "You know me better than that, Kes. If I made a promise to someone, I will keep it."

"And you refuse to make promises you know you can't or aren't sure you can keep." she replied.

"It's never steered me wrong… well, actually no. That has gotten me into all sorts of danger, but I am still here. Who knows, maybe I am overthinking it?"

Kes hugged him, "Whatever the case? Just come back."

Viridian returned it, "I'll do what I can."

Viridian kissed her temple, "Feeling better?" he asked.

Kes let out a shuddering breath, "Much better" she told him.

Viridian scratched her back comfortingly, "We're both in the long process of healing. Maybe we'll never fully heal, but I am more than willing to make this journey with you." he smiled at her.

Kes turned to Viridian and smiled in return. She nodded, "I'd like that."

Viridian held out his arm and she looped her arm through his, "Come on, let's go have some fun with the others. I imagine that Thorin will want to leave in the next day or two. Let's enjoy our peace while it lasts."

With that, the couple walked to the dining hall and sat in the back with Thorin and Dwalin, both of whom nodded at the duo as they sat down to eat. They had come in just as Niles was finishing up his last song and was getting ready for the next, "Having fun?" Viridian asked the Dwarves.

Dwalin laughed merrily, "Oh, most assuredly, Knight Viridian," he playfully slapped the Jedi on the back.

Viridian laughed, "Dwalin, please don't let my recent promotion change how any of you saw me when we first met."

Thorin raised an eyebrow, "You ask the impossible my friend. When I first saw you, I thought you were nothing more than a trickster who wanted the treasure of my people for yourself. I couldn't have been more wrong about you. You have shown me throughout this journey that while you may be a troubled lad, you are turning into a great man. One who I am proud to call a friend."

Viridian was stunned by that, "You're very kind, Thorin." he said numbly, "I am proud to call you my friend as well."

Thorin smiled and nodded in agreement, "This Niles has been singing for the last hour. Some of the songs we've greatly enjoyed. He's doing one more before he calls it off."

"Oh so we missed the show." Kes sighed disappointedly.

"What exactly were you two doing?" Dwalin asked his eyes alite with humor.

Viridian however did not squirm, "Not what you are thinking, Master Dwalin."

Kes blushed at the implications while Dwalin laughed.

"Kes and I are barely seventeen, and well," Viridian looked at Kes for a moment, "I want to be married before we do that."

"Whatever you do, I hope you both have a long and happy life together." Thorin smiled.

"Thank you, your majesty." Kes bowed her head.

"You do not need to call me that." Thorin told them, "You all are my friends and kin. I need no grand titles from any of you."

Ballin looked back at Thorin, "And we are with you laddie, King or not."

A clap from the front of the room drew their attention. They all looked up to see Niles nodding, "Normally this final song I would be sing'n, I would have my mates sing'n it with me. Sadly they are not here with me, but that doesn't mean I won't make this work. So please enjoy this song of the river driver's lament."

" _I was just the age of sixteen when I first went on the drive_

 _And after six months hard la-bor at home I did arrive_

 _I courted with a pretty girl, it was her that caused me to roam._

 _Now I'm a river driver and I am far away from home._

 _I'll eat when I am hungry and I'll drink when I am dry_

 _Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by_

 _And if this river don't drown me, its down on me to roam_

 _For I am a river driver and I'm far away from home_

 _I'll build some lonesome castle upon some mountain high_

 _Where she can sit and view me as I go passing by_

 _Where she can sit and view me as I go marching on_

 _For I am a river driver and I am far away from home_

 _I'll eat when I am hungry and I'll drink when I am dry_

 _Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by_

 _And if this river don't drown me, its down on me to roam_

 _For I am a river driver and I'm far away from home_

 _When I'm old and feeble and in my sickness lie_

 _Just wrap me up in a blanket and lay me down to die_

 _And get a little blue bird to sing for me alone_

 _For I am a river driver and I am far away from home_

 _I'll eat when I am hungry and I'll drink when I am dry_

 _Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by_

 _And if this river don't drown me, its down on me to roam_

 _For I am a river driver and I'm far away from home_

 _I'll eat when I am hungry and I'll drink when I am dry_

 _Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by_

 _And if this river don't drown me, its down on me to roam_

 _For I am a river driver and I'm far away from ho~me_

Niles opened his eyes to the applause, "You are all very kind."

"One more!" Bilbo cheered the dwarves all cheered in agreement.

Niles laughed, "One more," he agreed he took a breath and began:

 _If the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _Though I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again_

 _Well I came into a scolding wife a few short years ago_

 _And ever since I lead a life of misery and woe_

 _My wife she is a tyrant around the room within_

 _Yeah she'd sell me to the devil for a glass or two of gin_

 _Sure I'll get up and go to work as mild as any man_

 _And she'll get up and dress herself and go and have her dram_

 _And I chance to say a word it's well I know my due_

 _She'll follow me with the fire shovel up and down the room_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _Though I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again_

 _When I get up at breakfast time she'll tap me on the head_

 _When I come home at dinner time I'll find her drunk in bed_

 _When I come home at supper time at patience I must stop_

 _'Cause she drinks what's in the teapot and I must drink the slop_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _Though I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again_

 _Well once I asked me scolding wife if I could go to bed_

 _She scare gave me an hour on the pillow to lay me head_

 _When like a roarin' lion she came bustin' down the door_

 _She caught me by the middle and threw me naked on the floor_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _Though I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again_

 _Now me and my companions go to a public place_

 _She'll search around the neighbourhood until she finds my face_

 _She'll hoist me up in ridicule before the company_

 _Sayin' 'Petticoats is your master and forever more shall be'_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again_

 _And if the devil'd take her I'd thank him for his pain_

 _Though I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again_

Niles finished singing and opened his eyes, the group gave him an applause.

Viridian spoke up, "One more song please?" he asked.

Niles looked at his captain's little brother, "And what pray tell would you like to hear you walking WMD?" Niles asked with a grin.

"Are you familiar with the Gaela Volunteer?" he asked, Kes raised an eyebrow.

Niles grinned he threw his head back with a laugh and raised his hand in Viridian's direction, "Laddie just for that I will sing for this crowd once again!" the company cheered.

 _My name is Aellric MacTaversh, native of the Gaele,_

 _I was born among old Erin's bogs I was but a child._

 _My father fought in "Eighty-Ninth," for liberty so dear;_

 _He fell upon ol' Corellia, like and Gaela volunteer._

 _Then raise the harp of Erin, boys, the flag we all revere-_

 _We'll fight and fall beneath its folds, like Gaela volunteers!_

 _Then raise the harp of Erin, boys, the flag we all revere-_

 _We'll fight and fall beneath its folds, like Gaela volunteers!_

 _When I was driven from my home by an oppressor's hand,_

 _I cut my sticks and greased my brogues, and came o'er to this space._

 _I found a home an' many friends, and some that I love dear;_

 _Be jabbers! I'll stick to them like bricks and a Gaela volunteer._

 _Then fill your glasses up, my boys, and drink a hearty cheer,_

 _To the people of our adoption and the Gaela volunteer!_

 _Then fill your glasses up, my boys, and drink a hearty cheer,_

 _To the people of our adoption and the Gaela volunteer!_

 _Now when the Imperials in the north commenced a warlike raid,_

 _I quickly then laid down my hod, to the devil went my spade!_

 _To a recruiting-office then I went, that happened to be near,_

 _And joined the good old "Seventy-Fifth," like and Gaela volunteer._

 _Then fill the ranks and march away!-no oppressors do we fear;_

 _We'll drive them all to blazes, says the Gaela volunteer._

 _Then fill the ranks and march away!-no oppressors do we fear;_

 _We'll drive them all to blazes, says the Gaela volunteer._

 _When the Castalla of Castor came over here, and made a hubbaboo,_

 _Oh, everybody turned out, you know, in gold and tinsel too;_

 _But then the good old Seventy-Fifth didn't like these lords or peers-_

 _They wouldn't give a damn for Emperors, the Gaela volunteers!_

 _We love the land of Liberty, its laws we will revere,_

 _"But the divil take nobility!" says the Gaela volunteer!_

 _We love the land of Liberty, its laws we will revere,_

 _"But the divil take nobility!" says the Gaela volunteer!_

 _Now if the Imperials in the North should ever cross our roads,_

 _We'll drive them to the divil, as Saint Patricko did the drakes;_

 _We'll give them all short nooses that come just below the ears,_

 _Made strong and good of Gaela hemp by Gaela volunteers._

 _Then here's to brave Satele Shan, whom the army now reveres-_

 _She'll lead us on to victory, the Gaela volunteers._

 _Then here's to brave Satele Shan, whom the army now reveres-_

 _She'll lead us on to victory, the Gaela volunteers._

 _Now fill your glasses up, my boys, a toast come drink with me,_

 _May Erin's Harp and the Star Bird united ever be;_

 _May oppressors quake, and tyrants shake, and tremble in their fears,_

 _When next they meet the Republic boys and Gaela volunteers!_

 _God bless the Hero of Tython! That name this land reveres;_

 _Success to Maxim and Malcom, and their Gaela volunteers!_

 _God bless the Hero of Tython! That name this land reveres;_

 _Success to Maxim and Malcom, and their Gaela volunteers!_

Niles finished off the song with a whistle, and he got a loud roar from the crowd as they stood up and clapped and cheered "Thank you all so much, now if ye'll excuse me I am dry."

The crowd all laughed as Niles stepped off the makeshift stage.

Kes laughed and turned to Viridian, "How did you know that song?"

Viridian smiled, "A few ways. Daniel found it in the temple records, and my father is descended from the Gaela and he shared that culture with us. It talks about a Gaela Volunteer who fought during the Great Galactic War and the following Cold War."

"It's an amazing song." Thorin said.

"It is indeed." Viridian agreed.

"What happened to the Gaela?" Dwalin asked.

"Ask Niles, he's a Gaela." Viridian shrugged, "They fought the droid armies of the Separatist with such a feriosity that the droids all but avoided them when they saw them."

Dwalin laughed at that, "They would make for great Dwarves."

"You'd make for great Gaela!" Niles returned as he held his mug up and downed it.

The rest of the night was spent in merriment for the group in the dining hall.

Janus and Iminye were walking through the city of Rivendell mostly star gazing, "So you are one of the messengers going on ahead to lake town?"

Iminye rose an eyebrow at the young prince's awkward attempt to start a conversation, "Of course, I volunteered."

"Ah I see, uh, when do you leave?" Janus asked.

"I will be leaving before you all leave, probably tomorrow or the day after." she explained, "it really depends on, Thorin."

"Of course," Janus said.

"You don't have much experience with having a conversation, do you?" Iminye asked.

Janus sighed, "No I guess not. I spent most of my time fighting to survive."

"Against the Knights?" Iminye stated more than asked having remembered that before they came here, that they fought a two year long war, "What is Carthean like?" she asked him.

Janus seemed to be taken aback by that question, "Well it's a very mountainous planet, with massive cities built into and around the mountains. It's the capital of a small kingdom of around four sectors. Each sector has about three planets in a sector, at least with our largest one having fifteen planets. The size of the kingdom is about half that of the Golden Age Sith Empire, so about sixty planets total." Janus explained.

"Okay, but what was the culture like? The people? Was the king a great man?" Iminye asked curiously.

Janus seemed to contemplate the answer, "My sister told me that my Father, the last king, was a great man, before he died of a pretty nasty disease. He died alone, in quarantine, unable to see me born... that's how sick he was, but from what I have learned, the people loved him and mourned his death for over a month. So take from that what you will. My mother ruled in his stead. Unfortunately, she took the death of her husband very hard and just seemed to coast on auto pilot for the majority of the rule. It got so bad that the council had to take over till I was old enough to take over. Ironically that's what snapped my mother out of her grief, but it also allowed the knights to take control of the government. They ignited a class war and killed my mother, nearly killed my sister and I, but we did escape with several of the Carthean Lords and Paladins."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize." Janus told her.

"So Paladins? What are they?" Iminye asked.

"It's our word for Knight, but it has a bit more meaning than that. The Paladins are our Force using order, much like the Jedi Order, just more militarized. They are actually split up into small groups we call Chapters. Each chapter has some specialized role, for example one might be better at boarding actions, another might be great at hit and run attacks on the ground, so on and so forth."

"Interesting." Iminye nodded, "How many men are in these Chapters?."

"Traditionally? one hundred to two hundred. Now? There are only five hundred paladins left, all a mix of the once three thousand strong."

"I see. How did this practice start?" she asked him.

"Well it was at one point believed that Carthean was once a part of a larger kingdom that spanned deep into the unknown regions. In fact there are some legends of ancient kings and lords. One in particular, the high king united his people against the ancient Rakata and barely managed to defeat them and pledged their service to a mighty Celestial who is only known as ' The Great Father'. The Celestial granted the gift of force sensitivity to these people and the high king forged massive legions of these force sensitive warriors called Paladins. He then built an empire in the Unknown Regions. Over the generations many rulers rose and fell, till the last High King... he was a tyrant. He conducted cruel experiments on his sons and turned them into generals of these legions. It's a very lengthy tale, I'd rather read it to you from the records themselves as I can't do it justice and will likely butcher it."

Iminye looked excited, "You have me intrigued, Janus of Carthean."

Janus chuckled, "I have no idea if this is actual history or just a tall tale."

"Would it matter either way?" Iminye asked him, "If it serves to inspire, then does it matter if it is fact or fiction?"

"I guess it depends on the fiction." Janus answered, "but I think that this is very inspiring but also very bitter sweet."

Iminye drooped a little, "Well, considering that this great kingdom was reduced to that small nation, it makes sense."

Janus nodded, "Yeah, I could tell you stories of some of the greatest Carthean Paladins."

Iminye's excitement grew, "I can tell you some stories as well of the Dunedain and Elves."

Janus grinned, "I'd like that."

Meanwhile in the observatory Gandalf's eyes filled with tears as Niwen told him why she would come and the entirety of the situation, "My dear, have you told your father?" he asked

Niwen swallowed, "No I haven't, I'm terrified of how he'd react."

"That man who put you through all this." Gandalf began the anger in his voice obvious, "Lies to you about the man your father is. Celebion will never abandon his family, that includes your son and daughter, Niwen. No matter that their father forced himself on you."

Niwen bowed her head, "I am terrified." she admitted.

"From Celebion, you have nothing to fear. The real danger will be getting them out of that dark place."

They stood in silence for a moment, "Do you want me to go with you?" Gandalf asked.

Niwen considered it for a moment, before she shook her head, "No, I need to do this myself. My father deserves to know."

"He's on the wall." Gandalf told her.

Niwen nodded she took in a deep breath and began the long march to find her father.

On her way, she saw Jane sitting on the steps leading up to the wall, putting together some kind of jewelry made of beads held together with string.

Niwen walked up to him and quietly watched him. Jane after tying up the final bead looked up at her, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Am I," he cleared his throat as he realized it sounded broken, "in your way?" he finished stronger.

Niwen looked down both ways and realized this was the fastest way onto the wall as the next set of steps were on the other side of the water, "I can go around."

"No, it's alright. I was done anyway." Jane said standing up.

Niwen folded her hands, "May I ask what it was you were doing captain?"

Jane held up the set of beads for her to see all of different colors, the last one being a dark blood red . This is a story." he told her.

Niwen raised an eyebrow.

"This is Vesse's Story, my daughter's story, from her birth." he said, pointing at the bead that was the color white at the very beginning, "all the way to her death." he said pointing to the black bead, "then her killer's end." he pointed to the red bead at the very end.

Niwen closed her eyes, "I'm so sorry for bringing that up."

"Don't be," Jane whispered, "I'd love to talk about her. She was a sweetheart. After my wife died, I gave her to the Jedi as I wasn't confident that I could raise her anymore. Did… did I doom my baby girl?" Jane asked as tears fell from his eyes to onto the beads.

Niwen wasn't sure how to respond to this. So she did the only thing she could thing to do: she placed a hand on his back. Jane stiffened a little but relaxed after a moment.

"I should have held onto her," Jane shuddered, "I shouldn't have let her go. She's dead because of me."

Niwen did something that truly shocked him. She grasped his shoulders and caused him to face her, her eyes full of purpose.

"Did you kill her?" she asked rhetorically

"No!?"

"You made your decisions. She did too. Would Vesse want this of you? I may have never met her but considering how you talk about her, it sounds like she had nothing but love for her family. You did not kill her. If what I heard from your brother is anything, she died defending her fellow jedi from a monster. She is a hero. She deserves to be remembered as such." Niwen told him

Jane's eyes clenched, and he began to sob. Niwen pulled him into a hug in response. As he grieved, Niwen looked up and saw Celebion at the top of the steps. He was smiling at Niwen, smiling with pride and happiness.

"But why did she have to die?" Jane got out between sobs.

Niwen said nothing, only squeezing the embrace.

"She didn't deserve it." Jane said.

"There are many that die that deserve life, and many that live that deserve death. Will you give it to them?" Celebion asked, coming down the steps. This caused Jane to break the embrace and turn to Celebion, the tear tracks visible on his cheeks, "I believe that someday you will be reunited with her in the viel beyond the mortal world."

"I want her here now." Jane countered, "I want my daughter back, damn it!"

Celebion bowed his head closing his eyes, "I know what that is like. Different circumstance but same response."

Jane looked back at Niwen, then back at Celebion, "But you got her back." Jane retorted weakly.

"And one day you will be reunited with her. Do you believe that?" Celebion asked him, "Do not mistake me, Capitan. Take the time to grieve for her as all her potential for this plane was taken away unjustly but honor her memory by honoring what she fought for."

Jane took in a shuddering breath, his eyes full of determination. His back straightened and his shoulders squared, "I will," with that Jane took the bead artwork and loosened the string, "her story is far from over. She may longer be with us physically, but in spirit, in my heart, she is with me."

Celebion placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded with a small smile, "Then may her memory live on with you and your family till the end of days."

Jane swallowed and nodded shakilly, "Thank you, sir."

"You are welcome, Capitan." then Celebion turned to Niwen, "I apologize, Niwen. What do you need?" he asked coming up to her.

Niwen looked at Jane for a moment.

Jane took the hint, "I'll go see what the others are doing."

Niwen considered it for a moment, "W-wait, you can stay."

Jane stopped and turned back to the father and daughter duo, "Are you sure?"

Niwen nodded, "I trust you."

Jane looked at Celebion who smiled at him and nodded, "Alright, if you are okay with this." he said as he turned to face them.

Niwen began to shake and turned to look at Celebion, "Father… I have… a son and daughter." she stammered out.

Celebion's eyes widened and a mix of emotions warped his face. He looked at Jane, who had a grim expression. He turned back to Niwen, tears welling in her eyes, "Where are they?" he asked.

Niwen closed her eyes a single tear dripped down her cheek, "In the prisons of Dol Guldur."

Celebion swallowed the lump in his throat, "How old are they?"

"Seven years, they're twins." Niwen whispered.

Celebion was hesitant to ask this next question, "Who is the father?"

Niwen whimpered and shook her head. Jane's eyes hardened, "Is it Arthinor?" Jane asked.

Niwen just nodded and buried her face into Celebion's chest who held her to him.

Jane looked at the duo, his face warping into one of pure anger, "That bastard is so dead!" He snarled.

"I don't care about him," Niwen turned to him, "I just want my children out of that foul place."

"Then it shall be so." Celebion assured her.

"Y-you aren't angry?" Niwen asked.

Celebion kissed her forehead, "I am not angry at you. I am furious at that black Numenorean, but I will not allow my grandchildren to suffer at the enemy's hands anymore." he promised her.

Niwen visibly sagged with relief, "I was worried for nothing." then she realized why, "I-I hardly know you. H-he took you away from me." she weeped.

Celebion tightened his embrace on her, "We have has much time as we need. We'll know each other once again."

"I'd like that."

"Let us retire for the night, we can face this in the morning." Celebion suggested.

Niwen nodded "Yes... that sounds like a good idea."

With that father and Daughter walked to the sleeping halls to catch some sleep, leaving Jane alone.

"How in the blazes are we going to do this?" Jane asked no one in he walked to the main hall, where practically everyone passed out. Jane sighed, "Well I guess we should get off to bed."

The next morning Elrond had called for the Jedi to come to the Armory. It was eleven in the morning when they arrived. The Dwarves had agreed to one more day to spend in Rivendale. So the Messengers had departed a few hours ago, most of them heading off to Lake Town, but Elrond had also sent riders to all corners of Middle Earth to let the free people know of the threat of the Vong, if they weren't aware of it already.

"Before we begin I would like to ask." Elrond began, "Do the Jedi use Armor when they fight?"

Viridian raised an eyebrow, "It depends on the situation. Usually if there is a full scale war, yes we do, but some Jedi tend to forgo it to keep as much mobility as possible."

Elrond pursed his lips, "Viridian, if you are forgoing it to maintain mobility, then your armor is not made correctly."

"It also has to do with our role in society." Kes added, "Jedi are peacekeepers and negotiators. We left our title as warriors behind when the Sith were finally destroyed… or so we thought."

"I see. Well it appears that now you have to take up the title of warriors again. As a result of this and to show my gratitude to you for defending my home, I had my smiths forge some harnesses for you."

The Jedi were taken aback by this, "My Lord Elrond?" Du asked surprised.

"Especially for you after your near death at the hands of that strange warrior." Elrond said to the Zabrak.

"But why for us?" Xey asked curiously.

Elrond sighed as if recalling something, "You should never underestimate the effectiveness of Armor. The people of Arnor, though they fell, did not go quietly into the night. When King Arvedui escaped, a group of knights stayed behind to buy him time so he could get the help of Ciridian in Lindon. Their armor covered them from head to toe that they forwent the use of a shield in favor of other weapons, and they faced the tide of orcs, evil men and other abominations for several days. They died after only being overwhelmed by their enemies, when they subdued them and forced their helmets off. These knights numbered only four hundred, against a tide as numerous as the leaves in the forest."

The Jedi looked among each other in contemplation.

"And with our abilities combined with the defensive capabilities of this armor…" Du began

"We'd be a nightmare to deal with for our enemies… unless they have a lightsaber." Viridian finished.

Janus stepped forward, "I am ready." he stated.

Elrond nodded, "Then follow me," with that, Elrond turned heel and walked into the armory, there standing on stands along the walls were perhaps the most magnificent suits of armor the Jedi had ever seen. Full plated in splendid golds and subtle greens, the plating covered almost every inch of the body, and where it didn't it was supplemented by padded jurken and male coating. The armor featured ornate designs upon the plackart and breastplate, pauldrons and fauld-tasset, and even on the cuisse. The pattern was like the folding of individual strips, one after the other in an overlapping V design. Draping over the armor itself were green cloaks trimmed with gold, and under the fauld and tasset were curasses of similar color and pattern.

However, most splendid of all were the helmets themselves, each tailored to their specific user. Each Jedi stepped forward, inspecting their helms in their hands.

"Wow," Viridian said in awe as he examined his helmet. His was of Burgonet design, a closed helm with a three brimmed fluttered visor shaped like a downward V. It was trimmed with subtle gold, and along the top of cap ran smooth, subtle lines, akin to that of a lion's mane.

"You're telling me," Kes laughed as she turned hers about and around. Hers was a Bascinet, with a Hounskull visor that had a half dozen small air holes along its left side.

"I've never seen anything like this," Janus admired as he actually tried his on, an ornate and gold patterned Burgonet with a Bellows-Face visor, "not even among my own people."

"Get a look at mine," Xey replied, holding it up for them to see. Indeed, her was the more stranger of the bunch. While it was also a Burgonent, it had a bearded wire-visor, "I think I might get stabbed straight through!"

"One would have to be either lucky or blessed to achieve such a feat," Elrond replied, removing his own dagger and showing the difficulty of attempting to wedge it through the visor, "Not to mention you will be moving around, making this all but impossible."

"Fair enough," Xey admitted while accepting the helmet back.

"Me? I just think mine's cool," Du smirked behind his Barbuta helmet, crossing his arms over in a very machismo manner.

"And it fits?" Viridian asked. Du nodded, and removed the helmet, showing them its insides.

"Oh yeah. Nice and comfortable, too. I think mine's a little bigger than the rest of yours, though."

"Indeed," Elrond nodded, "it's size was for extra padding to protect your horns."

"Hmm," they heard Jasmine musing, "great views of vision… visor can swing outward," Jasmine turned over her Bascinet helmet in her hands, eventually trying it on. Like Xey's, it too had a wire-rim visor. However, hers were horizontal in the ribcage pattern, "and Master Elrond has already explained the effectiveness of this design… I approve."

Though she didn't say anything, Jasmine also approved of her own armor and helm's single color tone of green. Though she hadn't anything against the others having gold and various other trimming, as a hunter she prefered the single earth pallet.

"I most definitely approve," the Cathar repeated.

This left Ulra, who felt about her helmet. It was a simple enough Sugar Loaf with retractable visor. However, there was a small difference and Ulra smiled when she felt it. She put it on, and the others stated the obvious.

"No eye slits… well, obviously you wouldn't need them."

"No," Ulra smiled, "I do not."

Viridian looked over at Elrond, "You have my thanks, Elrond."

"It could use just one more thing." Janus said, putting his helmet back on the stand then kneeling in front of the armor.

Elrond raised an eyebrow at this. Then the suit began to float about Janus, who sat in the middle of it all, his eyes closed.

"Ah!" Viridian said in realization "he's imbuing the force into it." the others looked among each other then placed their helmets back onto their stands and began the same thing.

Elrond watched them, whatever it was they were doing it took several hours as by the time they stopped the sun had approached its final descent towards the horizon, turning a beautiful shade of red and gold.

That's when it happened. Janus began the process. The Armor started to orbit closer and closer to him, each piece opening and closing, then fastening to his body with his helmet coming on last till he was fully protected. The same happened with Ulra. Then Jasmine, followed by Du, then Xey, then Kes, and finally Viridian.

After it was done they all stood to their feet. Elrond saw an aura around the armors themselves. For Viridian, it was a smooth green haze his symbol that he sought knowledge and wisdom, and for Kes hers was the color of the sun as it rose in the east representing hope. Du's was red telling Elrond that the spirit of the warrior was with in him. Ulra's showed her nurturing and motherly side in the pink haze. Jasmine's purple haze seemed to fit her as she had that primal huntress aura about her. Xey's was a blue fire, a symbol of her martial prowess and more defensive nature. Which left Janus, which was a pure white light, one which Elrond guessed represented the purity of his soul and of his royal lineage.

"How do they feel?" Elrond asked.

The group looked among each other for a moment.

Viridian turned to Elrond, "Like we were born to wear these."

Elrond nodded, "It certainly looks like that rather than them being made for you, you were made for eachother."

Viridian smiled, "Maybe we were."

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, the final song sung by Niles, is an adaptation written by Jacob Sailer thanks buddy, of the song The Irish Volunteer I highly recommend you check it out reader, he also helped with the armor designs and will actually do a drawing of these characters in their armor hopefully within the next few weeks. I hope you all have a marvelous day and see you in the next chapter.**


	29. Sad Departure

**AN: well this chapter was fun and actually one of the ones I wrote very quickly it only took me so long to publish it because of scheduling issues, but enough about that, thanks to Jacob Sailer for the editing and help with this chapter can't thank him enough.**

 **Disclaimer: Star wars is owned by Lucas, the tales of Arda is owned by Tolkien, I only own my characters.**

 **The Sad Departure**

That night, the Jedi came to the dwarves and showed off their armor made for them by Elrond. Needless to say they were impressed. After that, Thorin told the company that they would be leaving at first light. The Dwarves and Bilbo were all visibly upset at that. Even Thorin was, as he grew to love the hospitality of Lord Elrond's people, but he knew he couldn't stay here forever he wanted to go home, and one day he promised himself he would show Elrond the same hospitality that he showed them.

Niwen had asked the people who knew of her predicament to come meet her at the gate house after everyone had gone to sleep.

Jane walked out onto the path and was shocked to see Viridian walking to meet him, "Viridian?"

Viridian looked at Jane, "She told me everything, and I am going to Dol Guldur with you all."

Jane rose an eyebrow, "Who all is going?"

"Gandalf, Niwen, and myself as far as I know. Are you coming too?" Viridian asked him

Jane nodded, "Most definitely. If you are going, and well, I owe it to them to come. I don't want anymore children to suffer not like Vesse."

Viridian placed an armored hand on Jane's shoulder, "Vesse didn't suffer, but I know what you are trying to say."

Jane nodded, "Are you going to take that armor off?"

Viridian shook his head, "Not till I need to. After our journey is done when we have down time."

"You won't be able to have any physical contact with Kes till then." Jane pointed out.

Viridian looked at him, "Damn it, you're right."

"You will probably be ripping each others clothes off by the end of this," Jane shook his head with a laugh.

"I… just shut up." Viridian sighed, causing Jane to laugh even harder.

"Viridian, do you love this girl?" Jane asked when he finished laughing.

Viridian took off his helmet, holding it under his arm and turned to Jane, "Completely. Jane, I have known her for years, and I want her to be happy." he told him with such sincerity that Jane could only smile at him.

"You want to marry her?" Jane asked him.

Viridian nodded, "Yes, one day."

Jane wrapped an arm around Viridian, "Brother, want my advice?" he asked him, "Stop waiting, we have no idea what will happen tomorrow."

Viridian looked at Jane, "But we're so young! We're barely seventeen."

"Then you are the legal age of consent." Jane retorted.

"Not on Alderaan."

"So you're following the marital laws of our home, eh?" Jane asked, "Then you need both legal guardians permission. Who are Kes's parents?"

Viridian's eyes hardened, "They are not her legal caretakers anymore." he growled.

Jane swallowed, getting the feeling there was a history there, "Did they abuse her?"

Viridian pinched the bridge of his nose, "Kes's father I admittedly have no idea about, but her mother… it's not my place to say."

"Okay, if she wants to tell me, I will let her." Jane agreed, "Well then in that case, she needs to have a legal guardian."

"I'd have to ask her first." Viridian deadpanned

"Then ask her, you knucklehead."

"One day Jane, one day." Viridian told him

"Alright bro, I won't hound you on it anymore."

"...I actually have thought about asking her, she… she nearly died while on a mission, just before the battle of Rivendell. An orc bodyguard of the goblin king, Gorkil, stabbed her with a morgul weapon. That poison… would have not only killed her, but turn her into some twisted form of what she once was." Viridian looked up at Jane his eyes full of terror, "She would have become a Slave of the Enemy."

Jane squeezed his embrace a little tighter, "This is why I am telling you that if you both are absolutely sure, then take that plunge. Don't have any 'what ifs'. No regrets."

"By that same token, I don't want regret because I made choices too quickly."

"Of course be discerning. Make smart decisions but make them quickly."

Viridian smiled, "Dad taught us well."

"Yes, he taught us well. It's up to us to learn his lessons just as well." Jane stated with a grin, "I think they are getting tired of waiting lets go."

Viridian nodded, "Yeah," he agreed, "we shouldn't keep them waiting."

The brothers walked to the gate house and up into the place where Celebion, Gandalf, and Niwen were standing.

"You certainly took your time." Gandalf said with no real anger.

"Oh Gandalf, if there is one thing you have taught me it's that we are never late, nor early. We arrive precisely when we mean to." Viridian smirked as he threw the wizard's words back at him, drawing a chuckle from the elder man.

"I apologize. I was… offering some big brother advice." Jane explained.

The trio nodded in understanding.

"So, I understand you have some info on Dol Guldur and the Vong?" Viridian asked Niwen.

"Some." Niwen admitted a little nervousness creeping into her voice, "There was a woman among their species. She was my caretaker and took care of my children. Her name is Nagme. She was very kind to me."

Viridian waited patiently for Niwen to get to the point.

"She explained to me that the Yuuzhan Vong were split up into several castes and that she was once a member of the Shaper caste." she explained.

"What's that and what did she mean by once?" Celebion asked curiously.

"Apparently a Shaper is a jenatic spesialist?" she repeated completely butchuring the word.

"Genetic Specialist." Jane and Viridian chimed in.

Niwen nodded, "They are responsible for the production of the Yuuzhan Vong War Machine."

If they weren't paying attention beforehand they certainly were now, "Go on?" Viridian asked

"Well, now she's a member of the Shamed ones because she failed some of her previous grafts. From what she told me the Shamed ones are the lowest Castes in their society, and are treated as slaves and serfs." she explained.

"That's a revolt waiting to happen." Jane said with a grin, "We could destabilize the threat before it even has a chance to threaten the Galaxy."

"One thing at a time. We have other things to worry about for example, we need to get every tortured soul out of that damn fortress." Viridian said though he too was excited at the implications of this discovery, "and I imagine that you want her free as well."

Niwen nodded, "I owe her everything. I probably would have died a long time ago if it wasn't for her."

"Then I owe her a debt as well." Celebion said.

"My Son and Daughter… have come to see her as a grandmother figure." Niwen added.

This caused Gandalf, Viridian, Jane, and Celebion to smile.

"Something tells me that they are going to want Grandma and Grandpa to be together." Jane grinned at Celebion, whose skin became deathly pale in response.

"I don't know this person."

"Jane, don't tease him about this issue. You can tease me all you want with Kes, but don't tease him." Viridian abdomished though there was no real anger in his voice just amusement.

"Alright, I won't tease him anymore. Sorry, Celebion." Jane apologized to the Dunedain.

Celebion sighed, "It's alright, Capitan. I just don't see myself getting remarried."

"Oh… I see." Jane said rubbing the back of his head and neck awkwardly.

"Niwen, my dear, what else can you tell us?" Gandalf asked, "Perhaps about the Vong themselves. Where do they have their armies, things of that nature."

Niwen furrowed her brows, "Nagme wasn't privy to that information or she didn't share it with me because I had other priorities to worry about. I am sorry." she apologized.

"It's quite alright. You gave us something quite useful already."

"So what are the Other Castes?" Viridian asked curiously. Niwen spent the next ten minutes explaining what Nagme had told her, and after it was over Niwen and Celebion walked off to their room to sleep.

"Anything else we need to discuss?" Jane asked.

Viridian cleared his throat, "Well there is one thing. You see, a few days before I fought Keen, the others and I felt a massive disturbance in the Force. Some time later I received a Telepathic from a Jedi, Tau Nyl."

Jane looked at Viridian, "Great, another Jedi on this world. When can we meet up with him?" Jane asked excitedly, before he noticed the anxious look on his face.

"Jane, there is no Jedi called Tau Nyl." Viridian told him, "I knew practically everyone in the order's name, no Tau Nyl."

"You think he's an imposter? He could be a recently trained Jedi."

"Then why didn't he tell me the name of his teacher?" Viridian asked.

Gandalf cleared his throat, "Viridian, you have nothing to worry about from this Tau Nyl."

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "Do you know something about this, Gandalf?"

Gandalf's eyes went alight with mystery, "It is not time for you to understand this mystery, Viridian, only when we are with this man will I explain this to you."

Viridian looked at Jane, "Chalk up another reason to go to Dol Guldur."

"I'll let Commander Libel know this development. He did tell me that a ship came in system. This could be Tau." Jane said. Viridian's heart skipped a beat.

"Commander Libel?" Viridian asked him.

Jane looked at Viridian worried that he may have did something wrong, "Viridian, calm down. I am not going to turn you over."

"I believe that. Commander Libel is here?" Viridian asked him.

Jane sighed with relief, "How do you know him?"

Viridian swallowed, "Libel was the Navy commander of my Clone Legion."

Jane's eyes widened, "He never mentioned that."

Viridian shook his head, "I doubt he would have he came in after I was pulled off the front. Is… the 777th here Jane?" Viridian asked him

Jane pursed his lips, "I guess there is no point in hiding it Viridian… the entirety of the 777th legion went rogue with Order 66."

Viridian blinked once, then blinked again, "Maval… rebelled? The whole legion?" Viridian asked, his voice cracking.

Jane wasn't sure what was going on, "Yeah, apparently he found the whole situation to be morally repugnant and disobeyed the order and rebelled with the entirety of the legion. It was actually pretty shocking to a lot of people, even the Clones. Jaing couldn't believe it but he respected them for it." Jane noticed Viridian had tears welling up in his eyes, "Viridian, are you alright?" Viridian began to take deep breaths. Tears fell down his cheeks as he tried to calm down

Gandalf placed a comforting hand on the brothers' shoulders, "Viridian is crying because he is overwhelmed with joy, Capitan. Give him a moment to collect himself."

Viridian wiped away the tears and let out a few laughs that sounded more like sobs, "That's some of the best news I had ever gotten, right next to Daniel and Vega being alive."

"Maval is the captain of the legion, right?" Jane asked him

Viridian nodded, "He's my good friend, he… asked me to… preside over his wedding."

Jane's eyes widened as he was shocked at one a clone getting married, and two that Viridian actually married a couple together, "Okay, you won't get married at the age of sixteen, but you can preside over someone else's wedding? How does that make any sense?"

"I do have the power to marry people according to Republic law. Jedi are technically priests."

"Badass priests in armor with powers of demigods." Jane laughed

"So repent, or else!" Viridian joshed with a laugh, causing the brothers to laugh harder.

"So, who'd he marry?" Jane asked.

"A woman named Beth, from Carida, when we liberated it from the Separatists."

Jane's eyes narrowed, "You were at Carida?"

"Yes, it was my last battle in the war, before Grievous was killed by Obi-wan. Then order 66 followed."

"You were involved in one of the largest campaigns in the war ever?" Jane asked.

"Yes Jane, I was, along with all of my friends and our new Master, Eleazar. We won that battle and returned home to face the Empire," Viridian answered, somewhat annoyed, "the council is all dead, so save your breath."

Jane sighed, "It just irks me they allowed you to fight in the kriffing war."

"I volunteered!" Viridian exclaimed.

"AND THEY ACCEPTED!" Jane shouted, "Damn it, Viridian you were eleven! E-carking-leven! And they allowed you to go and fight in the bloodiest conflict in our lifetime! Against an enemy that had no qualms in committing the most heinous acts of violence because they were literal automatons! You had no business being on the front lines."

Viridian sighed, "You're right."

Jane appeared shocked by that.

"Jane, I didn't want to go to the front. I did because of the woman who trained me, and I love our mom, I truly do, but Master Cley was just as much a mother to me as her and I wanted to fight by her side. The same line of thinking is bringing me to Dol guldur, as well as a promise to Celebion. I made a promise to him that I would help him find his daughter, and well, I failed that. So I want to help that family now."

"Viridian… you have nothing to prove." Jane said.

"Jane, I was blessed with powers that even I will never truly understand. I could spend a lifetime learning the depths of the force and hardly scratch the surface. What am I to do with this power? Do I use it to make my life easier? What good would I be doing? Do I use it to become a divine leader? What stops me from becoming a tyrant? Do I use this to make others better? That is the idea of the Jedi, Jane, to use his or her power to help people who are weaker than themselves. To serve our fellow man rather than rule them. Did we do this right? Probably not. Maybe we did become a pious shell of what we once were. I don't want to fall in that trap again, Jane."

Jane sighed, "Viridian, getting yourself killed is not the answer. You look at that and learn from it. Getting yourself killed to prove you aren't pious is the greatest form of piety. Remember what dad told us? 'Give with a glad and joyful heart and of your own free will'."

"Give with a glad, and joyful heart." Viridian repeated. "And of your own free will, and don't do it if you have the intention of showing off your morality."

Jane nodded, "Yeah that sounds about right."

Viridian looked at Gandalf, who watched the interaction between the brothers with a smile, "I am sorry, Gandalf."

"It's alright. You both have a lot to learn and discuss, even I have not finished my learning."

Viridian faced Gandalf entierly, "Gandalf, may I ask what is your nature?"

Gandalf closed his eyes with a smile, "Viridian, maybe one day I will show you my true self but now is not that day and you must be absolutely ready for it."

Viridian swallowed, and nodded, "A-alright," he stammered.

"The hour is late, you two should get all the rest you can get. We have a long way to go tomorrow."

Viridian and Jane felt their fatigue hit them like a crashing starship as he said those words, "Yeah, good idea." Viridian yawned.

Jane nodded, "Good night Gandalf."

Viridian and Jane began their walk back to the sleeping halls, "Your Squad is coming with us?" Viridian asked.

Jane pinched the bridge of his nose, "No, I am actually here to negotiate with Lord Elrond, I will catch up with you on my speeder bike when we are done."

Viridian looked to be extremely disappointed, "I was hoping you would be coming along."

"Orders are orders, Viridian," Jane looked ahead then looked back, "I think the Commander is going to defect from the Empire."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?" he asked no small amount of hope in his voice

"His general attitude when we speak, I think… I think our entire company is going to or there is going to be a battle going on."

Viridian swallowed, "Jane I hope this works out I truly do."

Jane nodded in agreement, "So do I, bro. So do I."

With that, the brothers went their separate ways and to their sleeping areas. Viridian walked in to find everyone asleep. He looked over at Kes, seeing she was asleep in her armor though her helmet was off, 'What am I waiting for?' Viridian asked himself. He shook his head and crawled into bed, and drifted off to sleep, thinking he'd tackle the issue in the morning.

Viridian woke up and found the others waking up, 'Stop waiting, you have no idea what will happen tomorrow,' Jane's words echoed in his mind as he looked at Kes who was sitting at the edge of her bed, 'Take that plunge. Don't have any 'what ifs'. No regrets.'

Viridian took in a deep breath grabbed his helmet walked over to Kes and stood in front of her, she looked up at him and smiled, Viridian swallowed and got eye level with her, "Good morning, mi amor."

"Good morning, how did you sleep?"

Viridian smiled, "Adequate." he answered, "Kes, there is something I want to do before we get started today." he said.

Kes rose an eyebrow.

Viridian bit his lip nervously, "Kes, we have known each other for the majority of our lives. We have fought in a war together. My feelings for you have grown stronger as the years go by. We have gone this far through life as friends," he dropped to a knee, and Kes's eyes widened, "so Kes Ametesi, will you be willing to spend the rest of our lives together, as my wife?"

Kes drew in a breath as tears of joy welled up in her eyes and she nodded happily, "Yes, yes, Viridian Mallory. I will marry you!"

With that she pulled him into a hug, their armor clanking together upon contact as their aura's blending together into a chartreuse glow. Viridian's hand traced up the back of her armor, touching her braid, slowly working his way up. His hand wrapped around the back of her neck, her hands clutching him tighter. Their eyes met, staring longingly into the other before they closed, and in a moment they delved deeply into each other.

Suddenly they heard the other occupants in the room clap and cheer for them, "It's about time you two!" Du grinned, before his expression turned serious, "Get a room though."

"You are free to leave." Viridian shot back with a grin not taking his eyes off Kes, she chuckled in response.

"As much fun as it would be to let you, we are leaving soon." Ulra abdomished.

Viridian nodded, his fore head resting on Kes's when it was done, "Yes, besides I want our first time to be on our wedding night."

Kes smiled and nodded in agreement, "I would like that, but first." with that she brought their lips together, their combined aura sparked and brightened with an intense freiosity.

Viridian returned it with just as much passion, pouring as much of their love into it as possible; causing their combined aura to only grow brighter. Their kiss lasted for what seemed like an eternity when in reality it was only thirty seconds. Viridian and Kes broke off for air, gasping longingly before returning their gaze back to the other. For long seconds, they drowned in the pools of the others eyes, green meeting and mingling with amethyst. Indeed, they might've closed again had Jak's laugher not interrupted them:

"Alright, come on, lovebirds. We gotta get going."

"Right." Kes sighed disappointingly, before she smiled, "let's get going."

Viridian nodded, took her hands in his and stood up with her, "Then let us go, slay a dragon, take a mountain, drive the Vong from Arda, then get married. Those last two can be changed around."

Kes laughed, "We'll figure it out as we go."

Viridian grinned, "But first," with that he burst outside, his hand still entertwined with Kes as she laughed. Leapt up onto the roof, taking in a deep breath and shouted with all that he could, "WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!"

"Congratulations! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" an annoyed Elf shouted.

Amist laughter, the group put on their helmets and began to file out. They met Thorin's company, as well as Celebion, and Niwen, as Gandalf agreed that he would meet up with them a little later.

"Are we ready?" Thorin asked the group as he held onto his pony.

"Yes, Thorin. We're all good to go." Viridian answered. With that, they began their way through the pass.

As they approached the bend the entire group looked back at the mist covered city lamenting that they had to leave it.

"The road goes ever on I suppose." Bilbo said, his voice breaking a little.

"Who's to say we can't come back later, eh Bilbo?" Viridian smiled and placed a hand on the Hobbits shoulder.

Bilbo looked up at the armored Jedi smiled and nodded, "Then let us keep going."

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, the next chapter will see them dealing with the perils of their route. I hope you all enjoyed and have a great evening and I will see you in the next chapter.**


	30. The Perils of the Misty Mountains

**AN: Hey everyone here is my new chapter special thanks to my good friend Jacob Sailer for helping me get over some writers block, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned Lucas films, Tales of Arda is owned by Tolkien.**

 **The Perils of the Misty Mountains**

The company of thirteen Dwarves, seven Jedi, two Dunedain, a Mandalorian and a Hobbit walked across the craggy path along the largest mountain range in Middle Earth. The rain made the rocks slippery and the thunder claps shook the air. Janus did his best to mitigate it but something about the storm seemed unnatural.

"It feels like there some influence behind the weather. I will do what I can but keep an eye out we may be being watched." the Carthean prince told the company.

"You heard him." Thorin called out, "Keep a sharp eye out for anything unusual."

Niwen shivered a little. Ulra placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Are you alright?"

"I have a terrible feeling about who the source of this weather is." Niwen whispered, her voice trembling

Ulra nodded and sent a subtle telepathic signal to the other Jedi. They stretched out with their senses and found nothing for the moment. They continued on cautiously, occasionally catching or being caught when someone's foot slipped.

Celebion strode ahead confidently with Fili and Kili as they had the best eyesight of the group. Celebion also had the advantage of knowing how to navigate the terrain as quickly and efficiently as possible.

As they continued, Janus sensed a danger, "CELEBION! LOOKOUT!" Janus leapt in front of the experienced ranger and held up his hands as a bolt of lightning struck Janus's hands. Using the force, Janus diffused the energy and doused it, "Whoever this sorcerer is, he's hell bent on killing us here." the prince snarled.

"We'll spread out and act as lightning rods, but we should find shelter." Viridian said to Thorin.

Thorin nodded, and continued to move forward. A few more bolts of lightning attempted to strike them but Kes and Du had handled them easily; either igniting their saber and absorbing the bolt with that, or using tutiminous to defuse it.

After some time they heard another thunderstrike and felt the ground quake beneath them, "What was that?!" Gloin growled.

"By Durin's beard." Kili whispered as he pointed forward, "The legends are true!"

"STONE GIANTS!" Bofur shouted.

In the rain, the company saw massive silhouettes fighting with each other. They looked bipedal and had a jagged structure like they were made of stone. The beings were massive! So massive that they looked like they could give the Zilo Beast a run for its money.

Bofur walked to the edge of the clif, "I can't believe it." his voice laced with disbelief and awe as he saw the mighty creatures made of stone fighting! Stones the size of mountains were being ripped away and chucked through the air like footballs, impacting the giants with thunderous _booms!_ However, the giants shrugged it off and soon closed the distance, engaging each other in close quarters. Punches and knees were traded as massive piles of rock were blasted away from the beings engaged in the onslaught.

Above the part, two were engaged in a grapple, and one gain the advantage. It grabbed its opponent and slammed it into the mountain, causing a rock slide! Bifur pulled his kinsmen back against the wall as the boulders the size of large buildings cascaded over them.

"STAY IN COVER YOU FOOLS!" Thorin shouted. Then the mountain side began to shake and the path began to crumble away it was then the company came to a horrid realization: they were on one of the giants, "HOLD ON!".

The cliff face suddenly split, dividing the company across a widening gap as the giant parted its knees. The entire world seemed to shake to pieces, the company clinging desperately to the rock face as the giant slowly began to awaken from its slumber. The legs parted fully, bending as the great mass began to rise like one moving from a chair. Its arms stretched out to either sides of its mountainous perch, pushing it upward. Then it raised its granite head and there coming at it was a fist the size of a skyscraper.

It smashed into the giant, sending it tumbling back into the mountain. The resulting impact sent several Dwarves flying over the ledge, the Jedi struggling desperately to catch them. However, just as they finished bringing their companions back to safety, the attacking giant struck the giant they were currently clinging to with a one-two combo. The giant started to splinter all around them as it struggle to defend itself, making the ground increasingly trecherous.

"Ahh!" Bilbo screamed as he fell into the widening gap of its parted knees. Viridian leapt forward and caught him by the hand. However, another impact sent him over the edge, and now Kes struggled to pull them both up as an avalanche of pint size stones pelted them.

"That thing's gonna kill us!" Fili screamed over the storm.

"We need to get to solid ground!" Jak roared back, but Viridian called back:

"If we try to run, we'll die! The mountain will just splinter around us!"

"We need to stop this fight long for us to escape!" Thorin concluded, "Viridian, can you do this!?"

Viridian stared at his fellow Jedi and shrugged, "We've never tried pushing something this big before!"

"But can it be done!?" Balin asked, almost pleadingly.

"Yoda did use to say, 'Size matters not.'" Du answered, "But he only said that because he's Yoda!"

"Then we'll do it together!" Viridian called back, gesturing to the Jedi to his que, "We'll strike back when it tries to throw another punch!"

On que, the attacking giant reared back its arm, gathering power as its thundering mass roared forward.

"NOW!"

As it threw a jab, the Jedi unleashed a powerful Force Push! The energy shot forward like the storm above, smashing into the giant with a cacophonous wave! So strong it was that giant's fist literally cracked in two, half spilling off into space. Quickly, under Viridian's direction, the Jedi seized this half and hurled it pointwise into the giants face. It struck with a sudden boom, leaving everybodies ears ringing. The result, however, had been worth it. The opposing giant toppled over with half its hand sticking off from its face.

"Quick!" Kili shouted, "We need to get off this thing before it starts moving again!"

"Everybody," Celebion shouted, directing them along, "to the far side!"

Quickly, the company started scurrying along the ledge until they reached the end of its knee. However, there was a problem. The nearby ledge was close to twenty feet away. The Jedi however were not flustered by this.

"We can toss everybody over!" Du explained. However, one Dwarf was having none of this. Running back to the edge, Gloin leapt from the ledge to the other, shouting, "NO ONE TOSSES A DWARF!"

He however did not quite make it. He hit the wall, bouncing off and barely managing to grab onto a vine five feet from the lip of the ledge.

"Oh really?" Dun shouted back, laughing mockingly as he levitated Gloin up into the air. Gloin's face turned red as a tomato as he blustered:

"PUT ME DOWN, HORN HEAD!"

"As you wish!"

With this, Du tossed Gloin across the ledge, the Dwarf landing in a mess of dust and weeds. Thorin shook his head at the laughter coming from everybody in the party, and stepped up to the ledge, "Viridian! Toss me!"

Quickly, Viridian did as instructed. The Dwarven King landed almost cat like, moving with a slight roll before coming up on his own two feet. He called out to the others to hurry, pointing up to the giant. It was starting to move again. With this in mind, the Jedi started grabbing the other members of the company and leaping the distance with their cargo. Some landed ungracefully, but landed nonetheless.

"Don't drop me, beautiful," Fili smiled as Kes took him by the shoulder, "I would hate to end up as a flatbread!"

"With flattery like that," Kes smirked, "I just might!"

She then leapt off with the Dwarven Prince, landing perfectly across the way. That left Ulra, Jak, Viridian and Bilbo.

"Care to fly, my love?" Jak asked as he embraced Ulra and took off with his jet pack. Now that left Bilbo and Viridian.

"Well? Shall we?" Viridan smiled down at the Hobbit, who looked fairly panicked. He shook his head profusely.

"Oh yes, I would gladly like to be at the end of all this madness! Get me out of here, please!"

"Alright, grab on-WHOA!"

Suddenly, a series of towering boulders smashed into the torso and hips of the giant, causing giant chunks of its body to come clambering down in an avalanche. Bilbo yanked Viridian back as they came crashing through the ledge, splintering away piece by piece until they were backed into a narrow corner, and still more boulders came thundering down!

"Viridian!" Jak called out from the valley, "Stay where you are! I'm coming to get you!"

"No! Stay where you are!" Viridian called back as he drew his lightsaber and hacked away the stones coming to bury them, "Bilbo, hold onto me! I've got an idea!"

With this, he started hacking away at their small section of ledge with his lightsaber until it came free. As they started to freefall, Viridian reached out with both of his hands and concentrated on levitating their platform. His breath became haggard, sweat pouring down his brow as he precariously hovered their platform out and away from the falling debris by a mere foot.

"Now what!?" Bilbo screamed.

"JUMP!" Viridian bellowed back as he released his charge, grabbing hold of Bilbo as he leapt into the air. In that moment, he became an empty vessel, his thoughts and mind voidless as he allowed the Force to guide his actions in this moment. With the most precise of timing, he moved between the falling block sized boulders, landing and running across one before leaping again to another. Finally, they landed right back the edge of the ledge.

"Viridian! Bilbo!" Thorin called out, "Jump!"

However, another great slap smashed into the wall above them and caused it split away. Viridian threw a push upwards, causing the wall section to topple forward towards the other side of the gap.

"HANG ON!"

The section toppled forward with a frightening speed, smashing into the lower part of the adjacent cliff twenty feet down from the ledge. As the ground began to crumble, Viridian tossed Bilbo skyward. The Dwarves quickly caught the Hobbit, hoisting him up. As Viridian was about to leap up himself, however, the ground caved in. He jumped but not far enough. He came short of the ledge, falling downward when Bilbo grabbed him by his armored arm.

"I've got you!" Bilbo shouted.

"Who's got you!?" Viridian screamed back as his heavier weight caused the Hobbit to slip from the edge. The Dwarves however quickly grabbed onto the Hobbit and began pulling the pair of them back until they were both back on solid ground. Panting and exhausted, Viridian clasped the Hobbits' hand in a firm handshake, "Thank you!"

"No!" Bilbo shook his head, "Thank you!"

Viridian let out a breathy laugh as Bilbo helped him stand up, "You saved my life, Bilbo."

"After you saved mine." Bilbo returned.

Viridian chuckled, "Well, let's find some shelter and get some rest." Viridian nearly collapsed upon saying that when Kes came in and supported him.

The company found a cave nearby Thorin ordered them to check it out, "Caves in the misty mountains are seldom unoccupied.

"It's all clear." Kili shouted.

"A little too clear." Celebion said as he investigated the area.

Thorin clasped his hand on Blibo's shoulder causing the hobbit to jump, "I was wrong about you Bilbo."

"What?" the hobbit asked confused. Thorin sighed as he leaned against the wall, shaking his head wearily.

"When I first met you, I assumed you a witless homebody. One not suited for this journey and this company. One who belonged in the Shire, not here in the wild."

"I am!" Bilbo exclaimed, "I am exactly that! I'm not brave or courageous like you! I'm just… just a Hobbit."

"Then you are truly unique, Master Baggins," Thorin cracked a revered smile, "because you have done a courageous deed. No, Master Baggins, you are indeed a brave Hobbit," he then took the shorter man by the shoulder, "and I am sure Viridian here would say the same."

"And more!" Viridian chuckled, "You're not too unlike your ancestor-"

"If you tell me that Golf story one more time I will throw myself from this cliff and be done with it!"

"Okay." Viridian chuckled. "I'm going to get some rest, that stunt took a lot out of me."

"Sleep well." Bilbo bade and sat against the wall and tried unsuccessfully to fall asleep.

Ulra shook her head and grabbed at her head repeatedly to nurse a headache.

Jak looked at her concerned, "Ulra what's the matter?"

"I sense a large amount of demented and twisted life nearby and I can't shake the feeling that were in danger in this supposed safe place."

Jak looked around, "We'll keep our eyes open."

"Hilarious." Ulra deadpanned with a smile

Jak chuckled, "Except you of course, my blind love."

"How many blind jokes do you have?" she asked amusedly

Niwen dried herself off as she looked up at her father who was studying the ground puzzled, "what's wrong father?" she asked.

"This cave… it doesn't seem natural." Celebion said, "It's almost like this was built."

"Dwarves?" Niwen asked

Celebion looked at the walls and ceilings and shook his head, "No, if the dwarves did, they would make this much deeper and more ornate stone work. It's almost like someone made this to look like a natural formation."

"Do you think it's a trap?" Niwen whispered.

"Possibly, though how the trap will be sprung, I have no idea." Celebion said.

"We'll keep watch." Thorin said.

"Shall we get a fire going?" Gloin asked,

Thorin shook his head, "No better not, I don't want to draw any attention."

"Where is Gandalf when you need him?" Bilbo asked.

"He stayed behind to help the negotiations with Jane." Viridian muttered sleepely, "and the imperial commander Libel."

"Is Elrond going to join forces with them?" Ori asked.

"I don't think so. Elrond's a 'man' of honor, but something tells me that Commander Libel is not like most Imperials I have seen." Viridian explained.

"What do you mean?" the young dwarf asked

Viridian didn't answer as he appeared to have drifted off to sleep.

Kes looked at the dwarf, "Forgive him, that last stunt really tuckered him out, he'll be right as rain soon."

The other dwarves nodded and began to drift off to sleep, Celebion agreeing to take first watch.

After what seemed like hours Bilbo woke up from a nightmare, and stood up, Celebion looked at Bilbo, "Hard sleep?"

Bilbo stretched a little, "Yeah."

"You want to talk?"

Bilbo looked at Celebion, "I don't know if I can keep going anymore."

Celebion rose an eyebrow, "You're homesick." he observed,

"Yes … I never been away this long, is it wrong that I want to go home?"

"Not at all." Celebion told him, "You've done a lot Bilbo already, I certainly wouldn't blame you for wanting to go home, but think about what has happened today, you saved Viridian's life, and survived a battle between living mountains, and you earned Thorin's respect."

Bilbo looked among the company, "The more I think about it, the more I realize that, I have a home to go back to, none of you do, it was taken from all of you, you with Angmar, Thorin with Smaug, and Viridian's with the Empire," Bilbo turned back to Celebion, "I don't know what it's like to have one's home destroyed."

"I pray you never do Bilbo." Celebion said.

Bilbo nodded his face determined, "Then I am going to keep on going, and help the dwarves reclaim their home."

Celebion nodded with a smile, "Hobbits, as brave as I remember." then his eyes saw it: Bilbo's scabarred was letting out a little blue light, "Bilbo?" Celebion said pointing at his sword.

Bilbo looked down and pulled up his small blade to see it was blue, his eyes widened in horror as did Celebion's.

"ORCS!" Celebion bellowed causing to company to awaken as the floor below them gave way beneath them! As they fell, the room filled with a thick oily smoke that made the company choke. The Jedi drew their lightsabers, and prepared to throw out the smoke with the force when suddenly flash bombs, and shards of metal exploded into the room. Cushioned between the armored Jedi, the Dwarves were saved the worst of the damage as the force imbued armor defected most of the impacts. However, nothing could be done to save them from the sudden blinding flash and their hearing reduced to a loud whine.

Only three of their company had the time to prepare for it. Celebion shielded his eyes with his hood, Jak donned his helmet which automatically filtered the light and Ulra who's own lack of eyes made blinding rather pointless.

The Goblins swarmed them all the while singing:

 _Clap! Snap! The black crack!_

 _Grip, grab! Pinch, Nab!_

 _And down down to Goblin-town_

 _You go, my lad!_

 _Clash, crash! Crush, smash!_

 _Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!_

 _Pound, pound, far underground!_

 _Ho, ho! My lad!_

 _Swish, smack! Whip crack!_

 _Better and beat! Yammer and bleat_

 _Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,_

 _While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,_

 _Round and round far underground_

 _Below, my lad!_

Jak, Ulra, and Celebion fought the goblin swarm as best they could, saving a good number of the company but they numbered too many and ultimately some were taken: Thorin, Bilbo, Balin, Fili, and Niwen.

"These monsters are going to curse the day they decided to mess with my kin!" Celebion vowed, "YOU HEAR ME!? I AM COMING FOR YOU!"

Viridian placed his helmet on, "Keep calm Celebion, we'll get them back, grab your weapons people, we got pest control."

"And someone has called the Exterminator." Du grinned.

(Deep in the cave system)

Bilbo was terrified more than he had been when they last faced the orcs and wargs, he looked around apparently the only ones that were taken along with himself, were Thorin, Fili, Balin, and Celebion's daughter Niwen, Bilbo took a deep breath and crouched onto his hands and knees making himself as small as possible, as the goblins went past him, after the horde had past, Bilbo stood up and began to follow them with his sword drawn, thinking that if he could see where they were being taken then go back and get the others.

A lone goblin stepped in front of him and snarled at him. Bilbo took a deep breath to calm himself and dropped into a ready stance as Xey had taught him, his sword held at the ready facing his opponent.

Bilbo then said calmly but with authority, "Back off."

The goblin snarled and did step back a bit, only to leap onto him. Bilbo held his sword upward, the Goblin skewering himself on his blade, but the weight of the creature caused Bilbo to lose his footing and he fell off the platform with the goblin trying to attack him weakly.

Bilbo pulled the blade out but the two fell further into the blackness below.

 **An: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and hope you all enjoyed the slight changes made to the canon elements of the story, after all things are bound to be different thanks to the Jedi and other elements. Well I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter.**


	31. Pest Control

**AN: Well this chapter is a bit of fun and I enjoyed writing it with Jacob Sailer's help I recommend you check his stuff out, as he's a great writer and editor.**

 **Disclaimer: I own only my characters**

 **Pest Control**

Thorin, Balin, Fili, and Niwen were brought before the largest mass of fat and skin that the group had ever seen! He was a sickly, ghastly pale as if he had never seen the sun. Granted seeing the hulking and disgusting blob before them, it made sense that he never saw the sun. So massive was this abomination that it could possibly qualify as a troll or an ogre. The creature in question was like a living petri dish, covered in warts and long dripples of a fiskus cream slime that added to the rotting smell it gave off. Half of its torso was hidden beneath a long bend of flesh that doubled as a beard, the only other covering it wore being a stained loincloth and a large bone crown that rested atop its greasy forehead.

The goblins relinquished the group of their weapons and threw them into a pile with a clatter. With a commanding sneer, the abominable creature rose, crushing a small pile of goblins that served as a stepping stone from his throne that was a little too high for him to sit in by himself. He looked over the captives, rearing his enlarged nose at them and bellowed with nasal screech that grew louder with each syllable, "Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? ASSASSINS?!"

"Dwarves, and humans your malevolence." one of the goblins answered.

"What?" the King asked, his eyes alight with surprise.

"We found them on the front porch, but some of them fought back. These were the only ones we could get."

"Well, don't just stand there search them!" he snorted, waggling a finger at the lot. His eyes drifted to Niwen and he chuckled. "Except for her."

"You lay one filthy paw on her and you will rue the day you came into this foul existence!" Balin snarled.

The great goblin laughed, "You misunderstand. She has a price on her head by a great sorcerer and I intend to collect."

"No one is going to take a member of my company." Thorin proclaimed, stepping forward.

The Great Goblin turned to Thorin, sneering, "Well, well, well, look who it is: Thorin son of Thrain, son of Thror, King under the mountain," he bowed mockingly, "Oh but I am forgetting you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king… which makes you nobody really."

Thorin chuckled, "Shows how little you know. While you may be right in that I don't have a Mountain, something that will be remedied soon, I am a king. I have earned that title by my people, unlike you who is only the king of what?" Thorin looked around, "Abominations, and scraps."

The goblin glared at him for a moment, snorting, "That's all you are going to find down here: abominations, mutations, and deviations, all shunned by the outside world." then he chuckled, "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head, just a head... hehe... nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak? An old enemy of yours, a Pale Orc astride a white Warg."

Thorin stared at him for a moment, his mouth agape in disbelief, "Azog the Defiler? He was slain in battle long ago!"

"So you think his defiling days are over?" the massive goblin cackled and turned to a small goblin in a basket, "Send word to the pale orc. Tell him that I have found his prize."

Thorin stared at the great goblin, shaking his mighty brow, "We have no quarrel with you, Goblin. Let us go, and the rest of my company will leave you and your tribe alone in peace. Because quite frankly you have nothing worth stealing. We had no idea you were even here, and finally there is not much point in killing you. This can end with you alive if you let us go."

The great goblin gwaffad followed by the thunderous laugh of the many underlings. "Tell me, Oakenshield, how does your company expect to kill all of us? We outnumber your measly group of friends at least ten thousand to one."

Thorin crossed his arms, a knowing smile crossing his craggy face, "Because I have a group of powerful warriors that your rabble couldn't hope to match. You may outnumber us, yes, but you are only superior to us in two respects. First… you smell horrible, and two, you are much better at dying."

It was at this moment one of the goblins grabbed Thorin's sword and began unsheathing it only to let out a screech and drop it. The great goblin's eyes went wide, clambering back into his chair with a stupified fear.

"I know that sword! it is Orcrist, the Goblin cleaver, the Biter!" He then jutted an accusing finger down at the company, snarling, "ELF FRIENDS! MURDERERS! KILL THEM!"

"I am giving you and your tribe ONE last chance. Take it, or be destroyed." Thorin told the goblins as they stared at him in fear.

"You dare threaten me! YOU WILL DIE FOR BRINGING THAT CURSED THING HERE!"

Thorin sighed, "You brought this upon yourself."

"Why you!" The Goblin King rose, rearing up a massive cane to strike at the bound Dwarf when suddenly the room shook with a tremendous force. A bright light pierced into the room, followed by a shockwave that sent scores of goblins cowering to the floor and there stood in the middle of it all the seven armored Jedi.

"Arm yourselves!" Viridian commanded as he drew Ringil while handing his saber to Xey.

The goblins all stared at the armored figure wielding the ancient elven sword. The Goblin King shuttered in fear as he stammered, "I know that sword! It is Ringil, the Bane of Morgoth."

Viridian turned to the goblins, his voice cold and demanding, "Indeed it is, Goblin. I will give you all one last chance let us go and no more blood will be spilt. If you do not, we will kill you and every single monstrosity here that calls this accursed place home! You have my word on that."

"KILL THEM ALL!" the great goblin roared.

"Great! Pest control time!" Du laughed maniacally as he charged into the goblins.

Thorin retrieved Orcrist and in an impressive display of raw physical strength, parried a blow from the great goblin and causing him to stumble off the platform.

"Everyone get behind us and take care of any Goblins that get through our perimeter!" Viridian bellowed to the Company.

"It's about time you lot showed up!" Fili called back as he began to shoot the goblins with his bow.

"Oh shut up and get to fightin', pretty boy." Jak growled as he blasted the goblins, wiping out a half dozen in as many seconds.

Du grabbed a goblin, lifted him up to shoulder height and threw him to the ground with such force that he shattered the bones of the fragile creature and the ground beneath shattered! Then he used its body as a projectile, throwing it with telekinesis at high speed through a horde of goblins charging over the narrow path towards them. The projectile continued till it hit the support struts on one of the massive scaffolding living spaces in the cavern wall, causing it splint and fracture. Under its own weight, it began collapsing.

Xey used both her sabers to eviscerate the goblins that came close to her, igniting a wave of blue and green fire in a swirling arc so devastating the goblins trembled in fear and began pushing back from each other only for those in the back to push them right into the meat grinder. Across from her, Jasmine hacked away with her blade and armored talons. She moved from target to target, ripping limbs and throats barehanded, caving in skulls in fierce punches, and dissecting the rest with her lightsaber. So quickly she moved with her feline grace that goblins were swinging not at her but merely her shadow, and they in turn discovered how deadly it was.

A number of goblins retreated to higher ground, attempting to shoot down the intruders with their bows. However, Ulra stood guarded in the back and utilized her powers to deflect the incoming fire. Arrows were splintered upon impact of the mighty Force barriers while others were sent whirling back into their owners and their companions. Some of the goblins were able to ascertain the source of the misfortunes, but attempting to shoot at her was equally pointless.

So, a number scaled the high walls, hoping to incomber the witch with numbers. Unfortunately, Janus was serving as her guardian, and when he spotted the goblins approaching them, he summoned telekinetic whirlwinds. The mini-tornados struck the goblins with a fierce exertion, crushing their bodies against the stone walls or sending them screaming into the sea of their fellows where they would be trampled to death.

Ahead of Janus, Kes removed her ball-bearings from her pouch and began to use the technique of balistikineses to tear several goblins asunder. The tiny metals sphere's ripped into the goblins like pellets from a scattergun, practically tenderizing them into fine meat. When the goblins around began to close the distance, she merely recalled them and formulated them into a protective orbit. A goblin jutted his hand at her only for it to be severed at the elbow, followed by his compatriot whose neck was ripped away in a bloody deluge.

At the center of it all, Viridian was fighting like a madman. With Ringel held firmly in hand, he decapitated a few goblins that came at him, his armor his saving grace as the goblins found their weapons almost useless against the Elvish metal working reinforced by the Jedi's cosmic energy field. It was as well as Thorin himself only wore chainmail beneath his clothes, and Viridian gladly acted as his shield. Eventually, man and dwarf fought back to back, Ringil glowing bright blue along with Orcrist as Thorin killed several orcs himself, skewering one in the chest and chopping another's leg clean through.

In the back, with Niwen undercover, Celebion used his bow to shoot any goblins that came towards them along with Fili. It was quite clear that the Ranger was the better of the two, scoring dozens of hits upon necks, noses and even a few eyes with lethal precision. Though Fili was not far behind, either. He made a respectable number himself, dropping goblins with blows to the chest. One even passed through soft tissue of one goblin only to hit the one behind it in the head.

A minute passed, and already scores upon scores of goblins fell to the company. They piled higher and higher in a morbid wall around them, the ground become stained and soaked with their blood. But they just kept coming, and with greater and greater ferocity!

"We need to get out of here!" Thorin shouted.

"Do you know where to go!?" Viridian called back as he threw a push at the goblins, sending them barreling into the onrushing horde.

"No! But we need to get out of here!"

"I concur!" Viridian agreed. While the Jedi and Jak might be able to completely obliterate these goblins given enough time, their numbers could still overwhelm the group there who didn't have the luxury of their heavy armor or supernatural powers. Viridian didn't want to risk getting them killed.

Viridian gritted his teeth as he hacked a goblin down the middle. There were no end to these things! And he didn't want to risk the company any more than as necessary. As he prepared to make a decision on which path to take, several bolts shot the goblins ahead of them, burning holes through its chest. He turned and saw Gandalf flanked by Jane and his squad.

Gandalf ran into the middle of the group, "I know the way out!"

"Take them, we'll finish this!" Du called back.

"What?!" Gandalf asked.

"Might as well finish this problem here and now then worry about it later!" Du called as he slammed his fist into a goblin's head.

"I agree!" Jak called.

"Time to turn this place into a tomb!" Celebion growled.

The Dwarves all shouted in agreement

Gandalf nodded, "Then so we shall, but I shall lead us in the direction out of this foul place!" with that he began running down a path with the company following slaying goblins as they went.

Viridian used his powers to destroy the platform as they ran, he looked forward and saw the company and came to a stop as he came to a horrid realization, "WHERE IS BILBO!?"

That caused the company to come to a stop as they looked among themselves, Ulra used her force sight to look for him, "He's alive… deep down in the mountain, down there." she pointed further down.

Viridian nodded, "I'm going to get him!"

"Wait!" Jane called, but it was too late Viridian jumped into the abyss to get their lost comrade.

"Come on! We must get out of here!" Gandalf called.

"And kill some Goblins!" Du shouted with that the the company fought their way through Goblin town.

 **(Deep in the earth below goblin town.)**

Bilbo roused himself. He found that he was buried under some strange fungus, and he looked out of a small opening to see the Goblin that he had stabbed through the chest, weakly hanging on to life with its slow shallow breaths. Bilbo swallowed down the bile in his throat; while the creature may be an evil thing, to hear it suffer especially from a wound he inflicted upon it was dreadful. Bilbo was about to stand up and put the creature out of its misery when he heard soft foot falls approaching and soft singing. Then he saw it, a strange looking demented creature with eyes that glowed green in the dark crawling towards the goblin.

"Gollum, gollum, what have we got here, precious?" the creature asked, "My precious, it is my precious." as it came up and looked at the mortally wounded goblin, it inspected it for a moment; looking at it's wound before snarling. the goblin tried to push it away feebly, but the creature grabbed the weekend creature by the neck and squeezed what little life it had out of it.

Bilbo sat their completely silent and hidden. He even held his breath as he saw this creature kill the goblin then it began to drag it away. Bilbo swallowed, and stood up, grabbing his sword which wasn't glowing blue anymore. 'Whatever that thing is, it isn't an orc.' Bilbo thought to himself. Then he saw something else, a shiny object caught his eye he turned to it and saw, a golden ring, "Huh… a souvenir to take back home… if I ever get home." with that he picked up the ring and put it in his pocket, and began to follow the passageway. He followed it till he came to an underground lake with an island in the middle of it, he saw the green eyed creature… eating the goblin. Bilbo gulped and hid behind some rocks.

Bilbo began to name off some food in order to calm himself down. Then a rock was disturbed near him and he halted and tensed. He looked over the rock and saw that the creature on the island was gone.

He felt a strange presence breath down his neck and he turned around to face the creature. It was a pale and sickly creature, its skin a slimy amphibian texture that stank of rot and filth. It had webbed feet, and hands boney and clawed, small textures of damp and feted hair jutting out from place to place, especially along the sides of its misshapen and almost fish like head. It was almost naked save for a loin cloth, and it glared at him from silver orbalisk eyes.

"Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it's a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it'd make us, gollum!" When he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat, and he advanced on Bilbo.

Bilbo held his sword in front of him, "Stay back, I am armed with an elvish blade."

The creature stopped short, squinting at him, "But it's not an elf, precious. It's… what is it?"

"I am Mr. Bilbo Baggins. I've lost my dwarves, my wizards, my friends, and my way, and I don't know where I am, and I don't want to know, if only I can get away."

"Is it lost, precious?"

"Yes and I would like to get unlost!"

Then the creatures voice changed, "Oh we knows the way, in the dark," before a scowl appeared on its face, "Shut up."

"I wasn't saying anything." Bilbo retorted.

"We wasn't talking to you."

Bilbo sighed in annoyance, "Look, I don't know what your game is…"

"Games! Does it like to play?"

"Uh…" Bilbo said, "Sure, would you like to play a game of riddles?"

The creatures eyes lit up, "Yesss!"

"Okay, so if I win, you must show me the way out."

"Of course, but if Bagginssss loses, we eats it."

Bilbo rose an eyebrow at that and he found the idea a little sickening, but he figured that he could probably win a game of riddles. 'Don't underestimate your opponent Bilbo.' Xey's voice echoed in his mind. Sure for sword combat but it worked just as well here, "You ask first." he needed time to think of a riddle.

Gollum hissed:

 _What has roots as nobody sees_

 _Is taller than trees,_

 _Up, up it goes_

 _And yet never grows?_

"Easy!" said Bilbo. "The Mountain."

Gollum growled, waving a dismissive hand his way, "Your turn."

 _Thirty white horses on a red hill,_

 _First they champ,_

 _Then they stamp,_

 _Then they stand still._

"Teeth! Teeth! My precious; but we has only six!" Then he asked his second:

 _Voiceless it cries,_

 _Wingless flutters,_

 _Toothless bites,_

 _Mouthless mutters._

"What is it, my precious?" Gollum snickered as he inched closer and closer to the Hobbit, "Are we's going to eats it?"

Bilbo raised his blade, jutting it slightly forward and Gollum withdrew a step back.

"Half a moment!" Bilbo cried as he looked over the water in thought then he saw the ripples in the water and he remembered hearing something like this before, "Wind of course!" he exclaimed pleased, 'This'll puzzle the nasty little underground creature," he thought:

 _An eye in a blue face_

 _Saw an eye in a green face_

" _That eye is like this eye"_

 _Said the first eye._

" _But in a low place_

 _Not in a high place."_

"Ss, ss, ss," Gollum hissed. He had been underground for so long and the memory of this sort of thing was buried. Just as Bilbo was beginning to hope that the wretch would not be able to answer, Gollum brought up memories that seemed to have happened ages ago, when he lived with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river, "Sss, sss, my preciousss, sun on the daisies it means, it does."

These memories reminded him of days when he had been less lonely and sneaky and nasty and that put him out of temper, but they also made him hungry so he tried something a bit more difficult and more unpleasant:

 _It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,_

 _Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt._

 _It lies behind stars and under hills,_

 _And empty holes it fills_

 _It comes first and follows after,_

 _Ends life kills laughter._

Bilbo snorted as he heard that before, "Dark!"

 _A box without hinges, key, or lid_

 _Yet golden treasure inside is hid,_

Bilbo asked this one more to gain time to think of a harder one, but he didn't realize how much this would actually stump the creature. After some while Bilbo became impatient, "Well, What is it? The answer's not a kettle boiling over as you seem to think given the noise you are making."

"Give us a chance precious, give us a chance!" Gollum struggled to recall before he opened his eyes in realization "Eggses!" he laughed, then he asked:

 _Alive without breath,_

 _As cold as death;_

 _Never thirsty, ever drinking,_

 _All in mail never drinking_

Bilbo sat in thought for a long while, "What is its answer, precious!?" Gollum asked as he walked closer to Bilbo, "What is it?"

"Hey, I gave you a good long while!" Bilbo snapped at him.

"Is it, nice, my precious? Juicy, gooey, yucky? Is it scrumptious?"

Just then a fish from the underground pool landed between Bilbo's feet and he flinched at the touch of it but then the answer came to him, "Fish is the answer!"

Gollum snarled but relented.

Bilbo in a rush asked:

 _No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs got some._

Bilbo winced after he asked as it was the wrong time to ask that riddle so he wasn't surprised that Gollum answered it so quickly.

"Fish on a little table, man at table sitting on a stool, the cat has the bones."

Then gollum asked the most difficult riddle Bilbo ever heard:

 _This thing all things devours:_

 _Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;_

 _Gnaws iron, bites steel;_

 _Grinds hard stones to meal;_

 _Slays king, ruins town,_

 _And beats high mountain down._

Bilbo stared at the creatures his mouth agape, as he tried to think through all the terrible creatures he had heard about that may be the answer to this riddle.

Gollum began to advance on him, Bilbo in his terror tried to beg for more time only for it to come out as, "Time! Time!" fortunately for him time was the answer

Now Gollum was getting angry and snarled, "It's got to ask uss a question, my preiciouss, yes, yess, yesss. Jusst one more question to guess yes, yess."

Bilbo tried but couldn't think of another riddle not with the creatures essentially breathing down his neck

"Ask us! Ask us!"

"Give me a moment!" Bilbo snapped as he stood up and thought to himself, then his hand brushed something in his pocket. "What have I got in my pocket?" he asked himself.

Gollum growled, his eyes widening in annoyance, "Not fair! Not Fair! Its not fair, my precious, is it, to ask what its got in its nasty little pocketses?"

Bilbo jumped on the opportunity, "What have I got in my pocket?"

"It must give us three guesses my preciouss, three guesseses."

"Very well! Guess away!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"Handses!"

"Wrong," Bilbo said waving his pocketless hands, "guess again!"

Gollum thought about what he kept in his own pocket from bones to teeth to shells bat wings sharp stones, "Knife!" he guessed at last.

"Wrong!" Bilbo answered, 'I lost it some time ago… how fortunate,' "Last guess."

Gollum strained to find an answer even worse than when Bilbo asked the Egg question.

"Come on! I am waiting!" he tried to sound bold and cheerful but he came across as annoyed.

"String, or nothing!" Gollum shrieked.

"Two guesses at once." Bilbo said in a sing song voice, "Wrong both times."

Gollum fell on the floor moaning in frustration.

"Alright, I've won the game. You promised to show me the way out."

"Did we say so precious? Show the nassty little baggins the way out, yes yes. But what has it got in its pocketses, eh?"

"That," Bilbo began pointing his blade at him, "is not your concern, you lost."

Gollum grinned, "Lost? Eh..." and walked closer to him, "lost?" his hand went down his side but nothing happened and he began to panic as he checked what little clothing he had for something, "Where is it!?" he shouted. Bilbo became concerned and backed off, "WHERE IS IT?!" he began searching through his bone pile, "No!" he splashed the water a little, "Lost! MY PRECIOUS IS LOST!" he sobbed

"What have you lost?" Bilbo asked a little terrified himself.

"Mustn't ask us not its business, No! Gollum, Gollum." he sobbed, looking into the water seeing his perfect reflection. Then he began to snarl asking as he slowly turned, "What has it got in its nasty little pocketses?"

Bilbo shook a little as he began to feel the tenseness of the situation. He held his sword up between him and the creature. Then the creature turned to him, his face full of realization as his eyes glowing bright green, glaring hatefully at him.

"He stole it!" Gollum proclaimed, then he roared a terrible noise that sent chills up Bilbo's spine, "HE STOLE IT!" he picked up a stone and flung it at him, and began to pursue. Bilbo dodged the stone and began to run away when from the skies the armored form of Viridian came charging in and pinned the creature to one of the rocks. Gollum shrieked and screamed and thrashed about to try and escape the grip of this warrior.

"SHUT UP, YOU WRETCH!" Viridian bellowed, causing Gollum to stop and stare up at the warrior in obvious terror, "That is my friend and I will not have you hurting him! Do you understand me!"

Gollum nodded, "Y-yess." he stammered.

Viridian turned his head to face Bilbo, "Are you alright, Bilbo?"

Bilbo sagged and laughed with relief, "I am now."

"He stole it!" Gollum exclaimed.

Viridian turned to Gollum, "What could you possibly have that could be worth stealing… unless its a rock of some sentimental value?" he turned back to Bilbo, "Did you pick up anything?"

Bilbo stammered a little before holding out a small golden band. The creature shrieked again, "I found it on the cave floor," Bilbo explained.

Viridian sensed dark intents from the creature then said to Bilbo, "Put it on, Bilbo. Something tells me that Ring is more than a simple article of Jewelry."

"No!" Gollum shrieked, only for a threatening squeeze to be put on his throat to shut him up.

Bilbo nodded uncertainty and put the ring on his finger. As soon as he did, the Hobbit vanished and Viridian's eyes widened as he realized that Bilbo also vanished from his force sense, "Bilbo?"

Bilbo took the ring off and he appeared again in the same spot, "Well I say… it's a Magic ring not unlike yours."

Viridian chuckled "Indeed," before he turned to the slimy creature in question, and growled, "you were going to use that to kill him, weren't you?"

"No, no no!" Gollum stammered out, but when Viridian applied pressure to his throat, he quickly whimpered, "Yes!"

Viridian looked around and saw the many bones of all sorts of creatures. He then delved into the creatures mind, sifting through it only finding horrible scheme after horrible scheme. Then he sensed within the creature other things: loneliness, guilt, self loathing, this creature was absolutely pitiful.

"Please don't hurt us." the creature begged, "Please." he had tears in his eyes and flowing down his cheeks. Bilbo felt such pity he couldn't bear to see it anymore

Viridian stared at him. The creature, despite all the darkness he could sense a little spot so deep within the creature, "How could someone become this?" he delved into the creatures memories and followed the time of him all the way to the beginning.

When he was done Viridian dropped the creature. It landed on the ground in a heap, sobbing.

Viridian kneeled so that he was close to the creature, took some rope and bound the creature's hands behind him, "Come on, Smeagol… I will do what I can to help you."

 **AN: Well then this was quite the deviation I hope you all approve if not well sorry not changing it, also the riddles all come from the book, if you like the chapter let me know, and if there is something that could be improved let me know, well I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter.**


	32. Goblin Town's End

**AN: Well this chapter was fun to write, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help as always.**

 **Disclaimer: I own only my characters.**

Goblin Town's End

Gandalf led the group through the maze of walkways and tunnels that made up goblin town. They carved a bloody path as they fought their way through the town, hordes upon hordes of goblins throwing themselves at them only to be ground up into a squall of blood, meat, and gore, mounting the walls with limbs and body parts.

"You'd think they'd learn already!" Kes exclaimed exasperated as she sent her ball bearings flying into the horde, mincing them into fine meat again for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"They're all inbred they don't have much brains." Bofur quipped.

"So this is a mercy killing, eh? The genetic deviations alone would basically see this place done in at some point." Du said as he killed yet another goblin, having lost count at seven hundred and ninety seven.

"I have no idea what you said, laddie, but if it involves killing more goblins, lets do it." Bofur bellowed as he bashed a Goblin's head in with his hammer.

The Imperial squad and Jak mowed the goblins at a distance. Niles had crushed the throat of a goblin that flew into his hand, Alaya stomping another's head in. Dex used the butt of his rifle to cave in a goblin's skull while Jaing eviscerated his either with his knife or flung them over his head on his bayonet with Jane picking them up to snap their necks and flung them into the abyss.

(Deep Bellow)

"So… we're taking him with us?" Bilbo asked.

Viridian looked at the hobbit, "Well I am not leaving Smeagol here."

"That's his name?"

Viridian looked down at the weeping form of Smeagol, shaking his head, "It was… a long time ago."

"What happened?" Bilbo asked.

Viridian shook his head, "Its going to take a while for me to sort through all the images, but from what I understand it all started when he killed his best friend Deagol over something… but I'm not sure what, exactly."

Bilbo's eyes widened, "He killed his friend? Why?"

Viridian shook his head, "I don't know… maybe it was a bout of rage that got away from him. I will find out. Don't worry, Bilbo. I won't let him hurt you or anyone."

Viridian picked up Smeagol and sat him down so he was facing away from Bilbo, his eyes boring into the deformed creature, "I am a Jedi Knight, a warrior from the stars. I own your life, do you understand?"

He shook his head.

Viridian nodded, "To put it very simply, I am going to do what I can to help you. But… I will not trust you with my friends lives. I want to help you Smeagol, I truly do, but the crimes that I have seen you commit are numerous. So much so that I think I would be doing this world a favor by ending your miserable life right now, but something tells me that you will play a role in the future… and perhaps… perhaps you can be redeemed. And if there is that chance I will do what I can to help you."

The creature stared at Viridian for a long while before asking, "W-what did you call me?"

"Smeagol, that was your name. You were no different from a hobbit, once."

"My name?" he asked, "My name… Smeagol," a snarl came across his face, Gollum seizing control, "NO! It tries to tricks us!" Smeagol came back in control, "But it shows mercy precious."

"Mercy?" he spat, "It helps Baggins steal the precious!"

"You were going to use that to kill him!" Viridian exclaimed, "As far as I am concerned, you can't be trusted with that." he looked at Smeagol conveying as much kindness at possible, "He is my friend, you understand? I will do what it takes to protect him, Smeagol. You had a friend a long time ago do you remember?"

Smeagol thought back as he remembered Deagol, "Y-yes."

"There was a time when you would protect him right if he was in mortal danger?"

Smeagol teared up, "Yes," he began to sob, "But it was us who killed him!" he sobbed.

Gollum resurfaced, "He tried to withhold our birthday present."

Smeagol shook his head, "Shut Up!"

"What did you say to me?" Gollum snarled.

Bilbo looked at Viridian in confusion.

"Go away," Smeagol growled at Gollum.

"You're a liar, and a thief, Murderer." Gollum growled.

"Go away." Smeagol repeated.

"Go away?!" Gollum asked laughing

"I hate you, I hate you."

"Where would you be without me?! Gollum, Gollum. I saved us, it was me! We survived because of **me**!"

"Not any more." Viridian said, "He doesn't need you anymore, Gollum."

"Shut up metal man!" Gollum shouted.

"No!" Smeagol exclaimed, "I don't need you anymore!" Smeagol looked up at Viridian, "He looks after us now, we don't need you anymore."

"What?" Gollum asked in shock, obviously losing the battle.

"Leave now and never come back!"

"No!"

"Leave NOW AND NEVER COME BACK!"

Gollum growled in frustration.

Smeagol stopped and looked around before looking up at Viridian, "We told him to go away, and away he goes."

"Away." Viridian agreed, "But not gone. It will take many years for you to heal, Smeagol, but I will do what I can to help you." however Viridian wasn't sure if he would ever fully recover.

Smeagol nodded, "Smeagol will do what he can to help."

Viridian nodded, "Can you show us the way out then?"

"Yes… Follow me!" Smeagol sprang up and began to show them the way out.

Bilbo looked at Viridian, bamboozled, "What on earth?"

Viridian looked at Bilbo, "He is suffering from a type of mental disorder... I will explain more later, Bilbo."

Bilbo nodded, "Alright."

(Goblin Town)

Janus sent a gale of wind at the Goblins that were chasing the company, the debris it picked up skewered some goblins but it sent the whole group flying to the other side of the cave with such force that it killed most of them, then the prince created a tornado and sent them flying all over like a massive fragmentation grenade killing the rest.

Gandalf saw a horde of goblins coming up the tunnel at them and broke a bolder out of the ceiling and sent it rolling ahead of them, crushing the goblins as they tried to run away from the rolling boulder.

As the Boulder pushed the goblins off the edge the company made a turn and ran along more of the shoddy scaffolding.

As they made to pass over the bridge, the great goblin sprang up from under the boards, causing the death train to stop when Gandalf stopped.

"Where the hell did he come from!?" Du looked beneath them, to see the ruins of another bridge and a ledge just beneath them, "Oh… that's where."

The Goblins surrounded them enthused and emboldened.

"You thought you could escape me?!" he sneered proudly, slamming his scepter down where Gandalf was, causing the wizard to back off a little.

"Would you be shocked if I told you, yes?" Du asked, "I mean… you don't seem that smart and we have basically butchered tons of your subjects… I mean, can you blame us for thinking we could just walk out the door?"

"SHUT UP!" the goblin roared.

Du shifted his stance to show his confidence, "Make me."

Gandalf stepped forward, holding up Glamdring.

"What are you going to do now Wizard?" the goblin sneered.

Gandalf slashed him across the stomach and bopped him in the face with his staff bringing the great goblin to his knees.

."That'll do it."

Gandalf then finished him off, slashing him across his fleshy beard, and Du made to cut off his head. However, as the great mass of the Goblin King slumped against the bridge, the poorly maintained superstructure finally gave out. With the groan of cracking wood, the bridge splintered in two and the company were sent hurting downward to their doom, skidding with great ferocity against the cave wall!

"I'm too young to die!" Fili screamed as he clutched his twin in an embrace sure to be their last. Du however smirked at them.

"Not today!"

With that, the Jedi Knights all raised their hands and threw out a great bubble of telekinesis, grabbing hold of their ricketting platform. With great effort and concentration, they controlled their trajectory and speed as the skid down the neverending cave walls, fighting to keep under their control.

"Left!" Gandalf shouted from his position at the front, "Left!"

Quickly, the Jedi swerved them leftward as they avoided a massive outcropping that would shattered them on impact.

"Right!"

They swerved and avoided yet another outcropping before lifting the whole thing itself and gliding them over a valley of outcroppings until they reach smoother surfaces. Jak cackled madly, though much more out fear and the strangeness of the situation.

"Never thought I'd be surfing on a bridge!"

A strained smile crossed Ulra's constipated face.

"Oh hush, dear! We've done stranger things!"

"Incoming! Ease it off!" Janus shouted as high above them boulders and goblin bodies were raining from the heavens. Now the Jedi had to focus on repelling the debris in addition to piloting their craft and they're weren't entirely successful. More than once, a body or stone would strike the bridge and their passengers had to scamper out of the way. Gloin and Jasmine were the worst off as a head sized stone struct the bridge between them and were sent flying. However, the pair were not entirely helpless as Jasmine somersaulted in the air, catching Gloin while Kes grabbed a long running board and set it their way.

"Don't move a muscle!" Jasmine cursed as she grabbed hold of the board and started riding the waves of rocks and moss.

"Bet yer fine bum I won't, lass!" Gloin screamed as he held onto the Cathar for dear life. With a wry smile, she hissed:

"Get any funny ideas, and I'll-"

"Lass, yer fine and all, but I already have a lovely wife and son!"

"I'll get you home to them, then!"

Ahead of them, their path suddenly took a turn for the worst as a mountain side boulder landed a scant fifteen feet ahead of the bridge platform. With no time to lose, Kes pushed to the front and unleashed a concentrated and precise Force strike, smashing into the weakening section of the rock face and blasting a hole through it. Her compatriots were quick to shield them from the fragmentation, allowing the craft to skid by its lonesome through the path Kes had made. Now they were faced with a long drop off.

"Oh come on!" Du snorted as he and the other Jedi took hold of the craft again and slowly glided them to the bottom. There, they landed safely on a nice batch of mass, and Balin laughed.

"That could've been worse!"

High above, a storm of rock descended upon them, and the company had to dive away to cover. When there was none to be found, the Jedi raised a mighty Force shield while everyone else cowered beneath them.

"YOU WERE SAYING!?" Dwalin shouted at Balin.

The group disembarked and looked up to see the goblins screaming and running down the incline.

"There are too many we can't fight them all." Dwalin said to Gandalf.

Abruptly, Du activated his saber and began to hack the bridge and stones to tiny pieces, he then looked at Janus, "Your highness?" he bowed and backed off.

Janus instantly understood and breathed in and began to generate a massive torrent of wind that picked up the debris and sent it at the speed of a mark five hurricane into the swarm as it tore halfway into the swarm he turned it into a cyclone and swept it through the entirety of the underground cave system when it was down there was no building left standing. And Janus had his hands on his knees and he opened his helmet to breath in easier.

"You getting better at that." Kes said patting his back.

Du turned to Gandalf and Thorin, "Who do we send the bill?"

(Deep underground)

Viridian kept between Bilbo and Smeagol as he led them through the narrow passageways, occasionally having to dodge some debris such as body parts or wood or stone, "What is happening up there?" Bilbo asked.

"Oh… we decided to do a bit of pest control… we're killing all of the goblins." Viridian stated.

"Ah… good." Bilbo shrugged.

"Goblins all skin and bone." Smeagol stated, "Not much fat on them."

Viridian cringed, "I'll be sure you get you some… actual food."

"Is it tasty?"

"Nerf is pretty good where I come from."

Smeagol looks back at him with a curious eye, "What's Nerf?"

Viridian thought about it, "Hmm, I guess the best way to describe it is like the cows I have seen around."

"Ooh, we like cow!"

"I'm sure." Bilbo deadpanned, "all this talk of food is making me hungry lets get out of here so we can join up with the rest of the company and have a proper meal."

"I agree." Viridian said. "How much farther Smeagol?"

"Not far just a few more steps and out we are." Smeagol said and came into a small stone hallway and turned around "here we are!" he exclaimed.

Viridian could see the sun rays and nodded, "Good job, Smeagol."

Smeagol smiled, then suddenly was flung out of Viridian's view. Smeagol screamed as he was sent flying by an unseen force, "Smeagol!?" Viridian lept out and caught him before he made contact with a tree and set him gently down. He turned around to see Du standing there, "Du seriously, I know he's not a pretty sight to look at but come on!"

"Sorry… I thought he was a goblin we missed… what is he?"

"That, my good friend, is a mystery that I am trying to solve… and I am trying to help him."

With that the company all filed out and Viridian helped Smeagol up.

"What happened? Jedi?" Smeagol asked as he was brought into the middle of the company that all eyed him.

Viridian turned to Du, "My friend here mistook you for a goblin… and tried to throw you into a tree."

Du rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry about that, Viridian… who the hell is this?"

"That's what I am wondering, too." Thorin said.

"My friends… this is Smeagol, Bilbo found him in the cave system." Viridian looked back, "He made himself a home there for a long time."

Jaing held up his blaster, "I'd say we blast him and get it over with."

Viridian held up a hand, "Hey, hey, hey, there is no need for that."

Thorin turned to Bilbo, "What do you think Bilbo, you interacted with this creature."

Bilbo looked at Gollum for a moment, "He gave me a mean match of riddles, but he eventually agreed to show me the way out."

Gandalf looked at Viridian and Bilbo for a moment, getting a feeling there was more to this story, "Thorin, I would like to talk to them for a moment if you will?"

Thorin nodded, and Gandalf lead Viridian, Bilbo, and Smeagol some way away, "What aren't you telling us?".

Viridian looked over at the Dwarves and other, "Gandalf… Smeagol threatened to kill, and eat Bilbo."

"Yes he did."

Gandalf rose an eyebrow, "And you are allowing him to live."

Viridian looked down at Smeagol, "While he may be a filthy wretch." Viridian began, "I just… there is something inside me that wants to help him. There is good in him, and yes, he did a lot of terrible things. I am not denying it, and the punishment he gets should be harsh… but I will not kill him. I think he can be recrouperated."

Gandalf looked at Smeagol for a moment, as he stared up at them.

Gandalf nodded, "Very well, but he is under your care and if he does anything harmful, you will be equally at fault."

"I understand." Viridian nodded, he then got eye level with Smeagol, "You cause trouble, that's it. I will not stop the retribution that comes your way, do you understand me?"

Smeagol nodded, "Yes, we understands."

Viridian pursed his lips, this was not the ideal situation. In an ideal situation, he would've had him isolated and interact only with himself, but this was all he could do at the moment. At least till he could get in contact with the Carthean resistance, and possibly the 777th. Viridian looked out over the setting sun, and had a bad feeling as he sensed something fast moving towards them.

"Smeagol, I need you to listen to me very carefully." Viridian began, "The next few minutes are going to get very chaotic."

Then they heard it: the howling of wolves. Smeagol looked around in a panic before looking at him.

"Hide and stay hidden. Once they leave, come and find me, understand?"

Smeagol nodded and ran off into the shrubbery.

"Come and find me!" Viridian called out to him, before standing up and running back to the group.

"Out of the frying pan." Thorin began.

"And into the fire." Gandalf finished, "Run."

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed, if you didn't well tell me why, well I hope to see you all in the next chapter enjoy and good bye.**


	33. A Chase Down the Mountain

**AN: Well at this rate this story is going to done with in this year, well I look forward to that and the beginning of the next part of this saga. Special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his editing.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my characters.**

A Chase down the Mountain

The Wargs of Gundabad are the mighty war hounds and steeds of the orcs of the north; an offshoot of the ancient werewolves created by the first dark lord during the first age of middle earth. While not as intelligent or powerful as their ancestors, the Wargs were a force to be reckoned with. Large, feral beasts built of ragged brown and black fur, and honed strenuous muscle; eyes as bright as gold, breath with the stench of death, and fangs menacing in their size and sharpness. Individually, they were a terrifying sight. However, the Wargs always hunted and fought in packs adding a surprising tactical foresight to their already deadly ferocity; one only enhanced by the company of their orc riders. Indeed, it was a pack such as this that now barreled down the side of the mountain with astonishing speed after the company of men, dwarves, and Jedi.

The Company ran down the mountain with complete haste, vaulting over tree stumps and stones, but despite this the wargs proved to be much faster and they were practically nipping at their heels. The Company swung back those with axes and hammers at those that came close enough, clocking the beasts in the head and stunning them. The Jedi with their lightsabers hacked into the wargs head and causing the smell of burning fur to permeate the air as the wargs cried out in pain, and some slumping dead to the forest floor from the intensity of the plasma blades.

The company ran till they ran out of ground to run across. They turned about, the Jedi and Stormtroopers forming a defencive formation with the company supporting them.

Gandalf looked around before he looked up, spotting the high ashen trees behind them, "Climb!" he called to the company.

"We'll cover you!" Jane called out, "Make your shots count!" he told his squad.

Red bolts streaked out, hitting wargs as they filed between the trees, serving as cover when the wargs repeatedly tried to charge them. The sharp branches served as well as Hoplite spears in this instance, keeping the beasts away while blaster fire danced after them.

Taking advantage of the covering fire, the Dwarves, Hobbit and Dunedain climbed the trees, and those with sling and bow did what they could to add to firepower being sent at the Warg.

Viridian turned to the other Jedi, "Form a Phalanx, take position in front of Jane's Squad."

The other Jedi cast a look at the Imperials for a moment before nodding reluctantly and dropped into a crouch in front of them with their blades ignited and pointed ahead.

Jak stood with the Imperials, drawing his akimbo pistols much in the way of a Western, growling dangerously, "You betray their trust? I will kill you all myself."

"Don't worry, we won't." Jane assured them and kept their blaster ready pointing at the choke point.

For a moment the wargs and orcs stopped charging and it was utterly silent.

Then they heard it, an orc shouting, "Hold your fire! My leader wishes to speak with the leader of your company."

Thorin looked up at Gandalf who nodded, and mouthed, 'Buy as much time as possible.'

Thorin nodded and turned to face the tree line, "Then let him speak!"

Then a beast snarled and in the darkness the group saw a massive wolf too big to be a Warg, it had white fur, and its eyes glowed with bloodlust and its mouth dripped with large globs of saliva, the creature however while monsterous and unnerving, its rider...was another matter.

"It cannot be." Thorin gasped in shock.

Astried the white wolf was the Castellan of Moria, the murderer of Thror, the orc chieftain from Gundabad, the pale orc of the misty mountains.

"Azog the Defiler?" Balin gasped in disbelief.

The Pale orc grinned, his yellow teeth showing his arrogant demeanor, his eyes showed his demented malice. He was clad in armor of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior class, scaled in browns and grays, and he had a strange creature for his arm. It in turn appeared reptilian in appearance.

The orc sniffed the air, grinning vily, "Do you smell it?" he asked, "The scent of fear. I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thrain. Especially when I parted his head from his shoulders."

Viridian's eyes narrowed as this infamous enemy taunted a good friend.

Then another warg stepped forward on it was the Yuuzhan Vong commander that Viridian met in the pass of Caradhras, Zimur Shai.

"Oh please, Azog. Don't leave any of the fine details out. I specifically remember that he was broken first, that after many years he couldn't even remember his own name."

Azog let out an almost purring sound, "Yes, he was no more than a pile of bones: a weak sack of flesh that had lost all his hope."

Thorin snarled. He looked ready to break cover and charge the white orc, his eyes blazing with a furious fury.

Viridian retorted, "He was stronger than you. It took you years to get him to that point, here? You're too scared to charge us! Where is the great conqueror of Moria I heard so much about? Where is the great Orc warlord from Gundabad that sworn to wipe out the line of Durin? Oh, there he is! Standing right there, scared to charge a group of teenagers!"

The Dwarves all laughed at this and began to mock the Orc.

Azog snarled, his pride struck, as he burned Viridian's features into his memory and swore to himself that he would wipe him out along with the line of Durin. He looked just to the right of the young man and saw a young human woman, clad in armor but he could tell that she was a female from her stance. Better still, he could smell the humans sent on each other, and a wicked smile crossed his battle scarred face.

Azog then pointed his mace at Viridian and Kes, then Thorin, "Those three are mine, kill the others!"

As he gave the orders the riderless Wargs charged the formation, and the stormtroopers open fire, shooting the wargs that charged getting most of them, those they missed were skewered on the Jedi's lightsabers.

Gandalf grabbed some pine cones, lighting them on fire and handing them to the dwarves and they in turn threw them at the orcs and wargs. Some wargs caught fire and ran away, setting the area on fire. Thorin took a Pine cone and with all that he could threw his at Azog, hoping to burn his smug face.

Viridian sensed Thorin's intention and considering that the orc threatened not only him but his fiance, he was more than willing to help and telekinetically increased the speed of the pine cone. It struck Azog in the face and burned one of his eyes, causing the Orc warlord to roar in pain and embarrassingly cower away, his 'warg' doing the same.

Zimur rolled his eyes and donned his full body suit and charged the line with a terrible roar. The bolts that hit him he shrugged off, leaving only dark burns on Vong plating. Viridian did the only thing he could think of, he met the charging Yuuzhan Vong commander with just as much ferocity, and meet him he did; his lightsaber locking with his Amphistaff.

"You promised me a fight, remember?" Zimur asked with a cold smile.

"I did and I'll give you one!" Viridian exclaimed and punctuated his claim by slamming his armored fist into Zimur's helmeted face. The blow was enough to stun him and Viridian then tackled him out of the firing line. The two combatants rolled in a clash of metal and mud, trading blows and headbuts where ever they could. However, neither was able to damage the other to much of an extent.

As Zimur wrestled with the Jedi, shoving his palm up his armored chin to push him upward, he shouted, "Transkasn! Now!"

Just then a Yuuzhan Vong Amphistaff, venting some kind of energy, came flying out from behind Azog and landed in front of the formation. Just as it landed, it detonated; sending out a shock wave equivalent to a thermal detonator and sending the Jedi off their feet. The Imperials and Mandalorian layed down suppressive fire in the hopes that the Jedi could get back on their feet and start fighting again. Du got back up instantly as did Ulra as they were the furthest away from the blast. Xey and Janus got up slowly and groggily, but Kes and Jasmine were worse off.

Viridian, realizing what happened, headbutted Zimur and smacked him viciously with the hilt of his saber as the blade wouldn't do him much good and allowed him a little venting, "YOU. FORCE. FORSAKEN. BASTARD!" with the last curse, Viridian kicked Zimur with such kinetic force that he was sent flying back to the orcs.

Viridian snarled but calmed down enough and ran back to the company, his eye on the enemy, "Are they alright?" he asked as Du, Xey and Janus came together and reformed the phalanx.

Ulra used the Force to assess their wounds. She opened up Kes and Jasmine's helmets. Kes coughed up blood, and Jasmine was drifting in and out of consciousness, "It doesn't look good."

Viridian cursed, and fought to keep his cool, "Are there any volunteers to keep the Phalanx up!?"

"No!" Jane shouted, "Stay up there! The Venom, remember!? They have next to no protection."

Viridian nodded remembering that.

"Viridian." Jane called, Viridian turned his head to see Jane holding up a thermal detonator, "Why don't you repay the favor?"

Viridian nodded and smirked, "With pleasure." with that he caught the grenade and then threw it into the enemy lines with all he could.

A couple of orcs on the sidelines watched as the grenade flew, "Dat umie's got a very gud arm."

Another smaller orc shook his head, this new breed of orcs did not have much brains on them.

Just then the grenade detonated sending out several Orcs and Vong.

Azog roared his fury apparent to anyone, he then turned to the larger orcs and screamed, "BREAK THEM!"

The lead one turned to the others, "You heard 'em, ladz! Letz break dez gits!"

The Jedi groaned, "Why can't they just give up!?" Xey asked.

"Because we're down three people!" Du exclaimed, "They think we're an easy target."

"We'll show them otherwise." Viridian stated, "Hold!" just then the orcs charged into their line, the squad pouring fire into them but they managed to reach the Jedi and were promptly cut to pieces.

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU HAVE, AZOG!?" Thorin shouted from the tree.

Azog snarled, before a thought came to him. He got off his steed and turned to it, "Can you cause the mountain to fall on them?" he asked the wolf.

The white wolf looked up the mountain and snarled back, his feral amber eyes betraying the intelligence behind them, "Of course." and took off running up the mountain.

Transkasn turned to Azog, "What are you doing?" the Yuuzhan Vong Jed'dai hunter asked

Azog snarled, "Burying them. We can't break their line with the forces we have, so I will overwhelm the Jed'dai with a mountain of stone and mud."

"Not a bad idea." Zimur commented, "Set the lesser orcs on them keep them distracted till Lucius creates the rock slide."

Azog nodded, "CHARGE!" he roared as the orcs filed out and charged into the clearing.

The orcs were gunned down and the jedi skewered those that came upon them. Ulra did what she could to heal Kes and Jasmine, but there was only so much she could do at the moment. If they got to safety and she had more time she could probably heal them of all their injuries.

Celebion and Fili shot their arrows with deadly precision, while Ori used his sling to some effect. The corpses actually started to build an incline that the orcs had to start to climb over, drastically slowing them down.

The orcs kept coming and it held the company's attention, it wasn't till Kili saw it for what it was, "ROCK SLIDE!" he shouted pointing at the top of the mountain.

"Oh no." Viridian and Du said in obvious dread.

"Can you hold it off?!" Niles asked as he blasted more and more orcs.

"If all of us were up to full strength maybe! But we're tired and injured we can't hope to stop all that rock!" Du answered.

"The-there may be a way!" Jasmine coughed as she regained consciousness.

"What way is that?" Jane asked.

Viridian pursed his lips, "If we were to give our strength to one of us, the power boost might be enough."

"But?" Jane asked, getting a bad feeling.

"It's not a very safe ability." Viridian said, "Especially among padawans. It has been known to cause death in the one that focuses all that power."

Jaing shouted, "Someone has got to do something."

Viridian swallowed and nodded tensely, "Then I'll do it!"

The Jedi looked at him in shock.

"There is no time for debate, just do it!" Viridian told them.

They nodded somberly and began to channel their power into Viridian, a bright pale mist forming about his body before it tunneled in through his orifices. His eyes turned bright blue for a several moments, his body radiating pure light. He breathed in and out as the power of the force flowed into him. The trust his friends placed into him to accomplish this drove him on. He would do the best he could to stop the landslide.

Viridian then pushed the orcs back into the mountainside to free up the line, causing the orcs to be crushed as the rockslide cascaded over them. Viridian began to push back against the rocks, placing all of his trust into the force. As he pushed forward, the rockslide pushed right back. His mind and body began to scream in utter pain, his eyes watering with tears but he kept going despite it all. He marched forth, concentrating harder as the rocks and mud came sliding down.

Viridian strained as he pushed the rocks getting closer as he was driven to save his friends. He was pushed to his utter limits, his body feeling as though it was being peeled away by a raging fire and he let out an agonizing scream. But still, he persisted; the slide reaching the clearing and Viridian's scream turned into a powerful bellow. Finally, the slide came to a grinding halt and Viridian struggled to keep on his feet only to find himself pounced on by the white wolf, and pinned beneath him. When he tried to wriggle, it's claws dug into his armor and it drew so close to his face that he could smell the stench of death; the reek of it making him want to pass out.

"I would not fire your weapons if I were you." the wolf snarled up at the company, "by the time you landed a single shot I would eviscerate him."

Azog came running and snarled at his minor victory; looking down at the weakened Jedi, smirking smugly, "The Orc warlord that swore to wipe out the line of Durin is here, with you beneath my boot."

The squad aimed their blasters at the orc and wolf.

"Stop!" Thorin shouted as he came down the tree, "You want a fight Azog? I will give it to you!"

"No Thorin!" Viridian called out only for the wolf to snarl at him, it's claws racking his armored plate with the shriek of grinding metal..

"If you want to keep your life, keep your mouth shut." the wolf snarled.

Azog bared his teeth in pleasure his mace at the ready as Thorin Oakenshield stepped forward to meet the Pale Orc armed with Orcrist and the oak shield.

"Soon I will have the eldest son of Thrain's head to add to my collection." Azog grinned.

"You never got my brother's head, I made sure of that." Thorin retorted.

Azog roared and brought his mace down. Thorin dodged out of the way and struck Azog's crab armor. Azog backhanded the Dwarf in retaliation, sending Thorin rolling a good three feet away. Thorin rolled to his knees and righted himself, his blade at the ready.

Thorin then intercepted the next strike Azog threw at him with his shield then pushed the armored Orc over, causing him to land on his back. The Orc threw out a vicious kick that clocked Thorin in the face, staggering him with blood spatter from his nose. Azog rose like a cat and swung his mace at Thorin, just missing him as the Dwarven King dodged the attack. Thorin hatched an idea and allowed the fight to be taken closer to the wolf. Thorin grabbed Orcrist by the blade and wound up to do a murder stroke only to purposely miss and smack Lucius in the eye with the Quillon.

The wolf roared in pain and eased up, bringing its paw to its eye, blood and tears trailing down its white mane, and allowing Viridian the chance to roll away and break into a run towards the company's tree. Azog snarled and struck Thorin in the back, knocking the wind and energy out of him..

Azog lunged at the Dwarf, snarling hot viscus drool as his hands closed around his neck and began to squeeze. Thorin fought for the life of him, punching and kicking, but the orc was too large, too heavy, too strong. His vision began to blur, his head spinning as the very life was choked out of him.

"Time for you to join your father, 'king' under the mountain!"

Viridian had only just turned to see this unfold, the Company screaming for Thorin then he more felt than saw what happened next. Bilbo sprinted past him, roaring at the top of his lungs as tackled into the Pale orc, throwing him off of Thorin with his small glowing blade stabbing the Defiler in the torso. As they fell to the ground, Bilbo continued to scream his bloody war cries and kept stabbing the orc over and over again, the blade slipping through the gaps in the orc's Vong armor and puncturing the soft tissue underneath with sickening splats. Azog tried to push him off but he was so caught off guard that he couldn't stop it, couldn't stop the damn Halfling from killing him!

Finally with a mighty roar, fueled by his fury and outrage at being humiliated by a **Halfling** , Azog tossed the hobbit off of him, throwing him yards away! Yet, he could not get back up, collapsing back on the ground with blood pooling through his armor. He could not get up… but neither could Thorin.

"No… No!" Azog snarled as he looked down at the injured Dwarf in desperation. He was so close… so close! But only so far.

Lucius stood guard over his master and snarled at the company.

"Kill that wolf." Jane ordered and the squad began to pour fire into the great wolf while Viridian and Bilbo pulled Thorin back to safety

The wolf's armor absorbed the bolts, howling madly at them as it stood guard over its master, and the orcs began to charge again. While many would be felled, there were too close and a too great many of them for the injured and exhausted company to stop. Then, just as they were about to be overrun, they heard the squall of great avian creatures. Their wings like thunder in the horizon, their mass kicking up great tons of soil and underbrush. Their presence was almost godly. The great eagles had entered the fray.

The Jedi, the imperial squad and the Mandalorian could only watch these magnificent creatures as they swooped down and killed the orcs by dropping them off the ledge of the cliff, Eagles made short work of the wargs and orcs causing them to pull back then, it was that the Eagles swooped in and picked up the Company and dropped them onto the other eagles as they flew them off to safety.

The Eagles brought them to their nest and set them all down, Gandalf and Ulra worked together to heal the injured members of the Company, Viridian took in deep breaths just then he felt Kes pull him into a fierce embrace and he returned it with just as much ferocity as both had come with in a hair's breadth of death that day.

It was then Thorin had regained consciousness that he looked around, "Where's Bilbo?!"

Balin pointed at him standing by himself awkwardly.

Thorin grabbed the Hobbit by the shoulder, his face contorted into a mixture of panic and relief, as he shouted at him, "Why? Why would you do that!? He would've killed you!"

Bilbo shook his head at him, his eyes narrowed and his voice on the verge of breaking, "He was killing **you!** I couldn't just stand there and let you die!"

"Besides Thorin at the rate he was going, Bilbo likely would have killed him." Du pointed out.

Thorin however began to laugh and pulled Bilbo into a hug, "Bilbo, You did the impossible, YOU HUMILIATED AN ORC WARLORD!" he broke the hug and held up Bilbo's arm he began to cheer, "BILBO, THE HUMILIATOR OF AZOG!"

"BILBO, THE HUMILIATOR OF AZOG!" the Company began to cheer, cheering this over and over again.

Bilbo began to laugh a little embarrassed, his modesty coming up again, "Thanks."

"Now that you humiliated him Bilbo, I will kill him." Thorin said, "You made it possible, my friend, I could not ask for a better company." Thorin said as he turned to all of them, "Thank you."

"We are with you Thorin." Ballin said.

All the Dwarves stamped their feet and shouted, "WE ARE WITH YOU!"

Gandalf smiled then looked up north, "Look!" he exclaimed pointing north.

Thorin and Bilbo turned around and they saw it, the Lonely Mountain the Dwarves began to move closer to the edge of the nest.

"Erebor, the lonely mountain, one of the last of the great dwarf kingdoms in middle earth." Gandalf said.

Thorin smiled, "Our Home." and he breathed a sigh of satisfaction.

They heard a raven fly by, Oin pointing it out, "The Birds are returning to the mountain."

"That my dear Oin, is a thrush." Gandalf told him.

Thorin smiled, "Then we'll take it as a sign, a good omen."

"Your right." Bilbo agreed, "I do believe the worst is behind us."

Du never felt the urge to smack someone so silly right now.

"Du, calm down." Viridian whispered as he sensed Du clench his fist.

"He jinxed us!" Du bit back.

"Let them have this moment." Kes told him, "we can poke fun at Bilbo later."

"Later…" Jak mused strangely behind them, causing the Jedi to look at him. Jak stared out at the horizon and closed his eyes, sighing as he did, "I have put it off long enough."

Jak wrapped an arm around Ulra, and urged her to look at him, and so she did.

"Ulra… Kar'tayl, I am so sorry for keeping you waiting for so long with this question, but… will you marry me?"

Ulra removed her helmet so he could see her face, and the tears that were falling down her cheeks, not tears of sadness, but tears of unadulterated joy, "Yes, yes I will!"

With that Ulra leapt onto him giving him a passionate kiss that he returned with just as much passion, Prompting Viridian to catch them from falling off by catching her armor's back, the rest of the Company cheered happily for them.

"I hope that this counterbalances Bilbo's jinx?!" Viridian asked Du.

"NOW YOU JINXED US!" Du shouted, "YOU NEVER EVER COMMENT ON THE JINX!"

"You know what? I am going to tempt fate! what could be worse then what happened last night?"

Du stared at Viridian as if he was mad, "... You doomed us all." he said causing a mass of laughter to sprout up from the entirety of the company including Du himself whatever challenges that were ahead they would face them together.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed let me know if the humor is overstaying its welcome or I am doing the right amount. Well I will see you all in the next chapter.**


	34. The Last Skin Changer

**AN: Well this was quick, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help with the editing.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

The Last Skin Changer

Azog roared as he finally recovered enough, the orc warlord staring down at the wounds inflicted upon him by that filthy halfling. They stung and continued to sting even after they began healing and would continue to sting for the rest of his life… which would have been extremely short if he was a pathetic orc. Ever since the humiliation at the mountain, Azog had been receiving challenge after challenge for the title of Warlord, killing off all would-be usurpers.

Azog, the slayer of dwarves, the tamer of the Skin Changers, bested by a halfling, "A DAMN HALFLING!" Azog roared as he slammed his mace into a tree, nearly breaking it into two from the strength of his fury.

Azog snarled, his fists clenched and his teeth grinding against each other as he fumed.

"You are making it difficult to sleep." Zimur stated from his position propped up against a rock,  
"A Halfling got a lucky hit on you. Big deal. When our hunt is done, you can lead an attack on their pitiful swath of land and wipe them out as retribution."

"Oh I intend to, and I will make that Halfling watch as I burn his home and life to ashes!"

"OI!" one of the new orcs shouted, prompting Azog to turn to him, "Perhapz Iz canz bez da boss!"

The orc backed up his boast by banging his sword against his shield, a menacing smirk on his face. Azog snarled, grabbed his mace, and prepared to show this fool the pecking order.

(The company)

Dex groaned, "What do you mean the Eagles won't give us a ride to the mountain!?"

Jane turned to him, his tone silencing him, "Rook, let the man talk, they probably have a good reason."

Gandalf nodded, "The Eagles don't like to venture close to the cities of men. Lord Gwaihir was shot down by some when he flew close, as they did not realize what he was. I healed him and nursed him back to health. That is why he aided us."

The company nodded in acceptance.

"Also why would you constantly give rides to people you do not know?" Gandalf asked with a smile.

"Fair enough." Dex sighed.

Viridian shrugged, "It's not so bad. It allows us more time to bond."

Jaing snorted, "Imperials bonding with Jedi?"

"It's not so strange." Viridian said with a shrug, "we fought alongside each other in the war. This was no different."

Jaing stopped and turned to face Viridian with a raised eyebrow, "Are you saying you don't hate me anymore?"

Viridian squared up with Jaing, his eyes unflinching as he said with conviction, "I wasted the past two years of my life hating something, and in doing so, I pushed away the people that mattered the most to me," Viridian looked over at Kes before looking back at Jaing, "I am done letting hate rule my life. I am still angry about what happened in Order 66. But I am done hating Clones. Do not mistake me, though. If I have to, I will not pull punches if the Empire comes after me or my family."

Jaing stared at him for a long while before nodding in respect, "Fair enough," he said as he turned about and began walking again.

Kes came up to Viridian, interlaced her hand with his and the loving pair began strolling through the forest again to enjoy the peace of the world alone, and together.

"However, if it is a ride you all want, I do know a man that could help us." Gandalf explained to the company.

"Is he friend or foe?" Thorin asked.

Gandalf shook his head, "He is neither. His loyalty is to the animals and nature of the world."

"Great, a tree hugger." Niles shook his head.

"I would not mock him, Trooper." Gandalf told him sternly, "for he is a mighty warrior, and he abhors the orcs. That being said, he can be of a short temper."

"Who is he?" Du asked.

"If you must know, his name is Beorn. He is very strong, and he is a skin changer."

"What! A furrier? A man that calls rabbits conies when he doesn't turn their skins into squirrels?" Bilbo asked, much to the confusion of just about everyone.

Gandalf however shook his head fearsly, "Good gracious heavens, no, no, no, NO! Don't be a fool, Bilbo, if you can help it; and in the name of all wonder don't mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house. Nor rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word! He is a skin changer. As the name suggests, he changes his skin. Sometimes he is a huge black bear, other times he is a great strong black haired man with huge arms and a great beard."

"Oh! He is a shapeshifter." Janus said in realization, prompting the inhabitants of Arda to look at him, "What? We have 'em to."

Viridian nodded, "He's right though… I never heard of a shape shifter change from a humanoid to an animal before. Though... that's not entirely true. There are some rumors about such thing in the unknown regions of space but it is incredibly rare."

"Viridian." Kes began, squeezing his hand, "We **are** in the unknown regions of space." she said coily.

Viridian grinned, "That's right we are."

"So how do you want to do this?" Thorin asked.

"I will introduce you all by twos I feel and slowly." Gandalf told them.

Thorin nodded in understanding, "Does he like stories? Especially about killing goblins and orcs?"

Gandalf nodded, "Aye, he does."

"I think I found a new friend." Du smiled.

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves." Jasmine told her fellow Jedi cautiously, always the wary hunter.

"I think he dislikes other people." Xey said.

"We'll soon find out won't we?" Alaya asked.

"Then shall we?" Gandalf asked.

Thorin nodded, and with that the group followed Gandalf. When the sun reached three in the afternoon, they came across the great wood house that Gandalf told them about.. The building look old, but surprisingly well maintained with walls made from elk and oak with layers of vegetation growing along the sides.

Gandalf strode into the bailey with Bilbo of the walled off property and up to the door, and knocked on it with his staff. The door opened and there stood a giant of a man, more bear in appearance than human. He dressed in a simple brown tunic, his powerful frame towering tall above Gandalf, "Who are you and what do you want?" he asked gruffly, his voice a powerful baritone.

"I am Gandalf." said the wizard.

The man growled, "Never heard of him. And what's this little fellow?" he said stooping down to frown at the hobbit with his bushy black eyebrows.

"That is Mr. Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation." Gandalf said, Bilbo bowed a little self conscious of his somewhat messy appearance, "I am a Wizard. I have heard of you even if you have not heard of me. Perhaps you have heard of my good cousin, Radagast, who lives near the Southern borders of Mirkwood?"

"Yes, I know of the fellow," he nodded, "a fair being as wizards go, I believe. I used to see him now and again. Well, now I know who you are, or who you say you are. What do you want?" Beorn asked.

"To tell you the truth, we lost our luggage and nearly lost our way and are rather in need of your help, or at least of advice. I may say we have had a rather bad time with goblins in the mountain."

"Goblins?" Beorn asked his tone shifting harshly, "O ho, so you you've been having trouble with **them** have you? What foolish reason did you go near them for?"

"We did not mean to. They surprised us at night in the pass which we had to cross. We were coming out of the lands over west into these countrie-it is a long tale." the Wizard sighed after a length.

"Then you had better come inside and tell me some of it… if it won't take all day."

With that, Gandalf began telling the skin changer the story of their adventure... the abridged version of it anyway and began to introduce the company, starting with Thorin and some of the other dwarves. Then he began to talk about the new enemy that threatened them but also of the new ally that had come to help them. Here he introduced Viridian and the other Jedi.

"Viridian Mallory at your service." Viridian bowed politely, who in turn named each of the others in their company. Beorn nodded gruffly, grunting his approval and Viridian took a seat next to Thorin.

"So... these sky orcs are working with the goblins and you are the sky orc's enemy?"

Viridian nodded, "Yes, that is true"

Beorn's brow furrowed, "Why are they here? And why are you here, Viridian Mallory, Jedi Knight?"

"My fellows and I were sent this way to find a place to set up a home base for a war that we are fighting with a people called the Cartheans. Their home was subjugated by a group of people who hate people with the ability to become Jedi, or what you might consider wizards. After two years of fighting them, the empire that destroyed my people took Carthea and thus here we are."

"I see," Beorn said, "continue."

"Well, after coming here we met the sky orcs and they shot us down. They are here because they believe the one who created the orcs and all the evil creatures is their devine creator. A god, if you will, and they are trying to resurrect him… at least, that's what we were able to glean from the warrior we interrogated."

Beorn sighed, shaking his mighty head as he did, "Then it is the same as it always is: abominations fighting for a Dark Lord they don't even know, or even bother to understand. It is the same here on Arda, and it is the same for you, beings of the stars."

Then Gandalf continued telling them how they had fought off an orc attack on Rivendell lead by an orc warlord called the "Hammer of Gundabad" and the subsequent alliance with the imperials that was forged their between them and the free peoples, then Gandalf began to introduce the Imperial squad.

"So, tell me, Captain Mallory, brother of Viridian… why are **you** here?"

"Personally? I am sent where I am told, but the Empire's business here is to find the mineral known as Mithril so the Emperor can use it for his own purposes." Jane said honestly. Beorn looked at him for a long moment, though Jane felt as though he were looking past him, beyond him.

"So…" he began, "one comes to conquer, one comes to survive, and the other comes out of greed. But looking at you, Captain Mallory, I don't see your 'Empire' on your face," his eyes darted sideways at Viridian quickly before returning to the captain, "and your men seem to follow you, not your Empire. So tell me, Captain, what are **you** looking for here, on Arda? What do you want?"

Jane sighed, "At first? I wanted nothing. It was just another assignment to me, but all that changed in Rivendell... when I found my brother. What do I want? What I want is to keep him safe. Sure, he is a hellovalot more powerful than I am, but he is **my** family. And I will keep him safe no matter what." Viridian felt touched by this admission.

"A worthy cause," Beorn nodded, the ghost of a smile passing his craggy face, "there is nothing more important than family."

Followed by this Gandalf introduced the Dunedain Ranger Celebion and his daughter Niwen.

Celebion bowed, "Celebion at your service."

Niwen bowed as well, "Niwen at your service."

Beorn looked at her approvingly, and actually smiled, "A pleasure, Niwen," he then looked at Celebion knowingly, "is she your daughter?"

"Yes she is," Celebion answered.

Beorn rose an eyebrow, "So why are you both on this journey?"

A look of pain crossed Celebion's face, "That is a long tale.

"I am willing to hear it."

Celebion sighed, and he continued, "Twelve years ago, a group of evil men came to our camp in order to abduct our children. Niwen... was taken. I spent twelve years searching the wilds of Eriador, even braving Deadman's Dike and the ruins of Carn Dum, trying to find her. I went to Rohan in the south before I was called to fight a new and terrifying breed of orc, it was in the Barrow Downs I met Viridian and helped him fight off the sky orcs, he agreed to help me in my plight, when Gandalf came to investigate his crash site as I have done and told us of Thorin's quest, so I used this as an opportunity to finally cross the mountains, it was at Rivendell when Niwen was rescued from the vile man by the captain and his squad here, the reason we're on this journey together, is for two reasons, one I wish to see my pledge to Thorin fulfilled, and the other… is a personal matter."

Beorn was silent for a long moment, staring at Niwen and seeing not her sitting there but… someone else. He sighed, nodding for a moment.

"My family was… killed for sport. It has been a long time since I've seen a family whole, and it is quite fortunate that you were both reunited," he then looked at Celebion, his eyes a mixture of pain and yet fatherly, "I would only ask that you keep her safe, Celebion, that you do not let her go. I… I wouldn't wish my status on anyone else, especially not you, Dunedain."

Celebion nodded and pulled Niwen into a sideways hug. "I will."

Beorn turned to Gandalf as he tried to change the subject, "What happened after the battle of Rivendell?" he asked curiously.

"We stayed there for some time. Viridian fought and killed a mad man in a judicial duel."

Beorn looked at the young Jedi, "Why?"

Viridian took a deep breath to calm himself, looking sideways at Jane who nodded his way.

"He was a member of my squad who hated Jedi." Jane said, "He… was a part of the force that attacked the temple."

"I accused him of war crimes, and he endangered the entire battle because of his personal grudge. He threw me into the horde of orcs and I fought and killed the Hammer in single combat. Keen… killed children in the raid on the temple." Viridian's eyes began to tear up and he furiously wiped them away. Jane was also getting emotional himself, but he held them in check as best as he could. Kes wrapped an arm around Viridian and embraced him while Niwen did the same for Jane.

Gandalf turned to Beorn, "Forgive them, it's hard for them."

Beorn had a terrible feeling about this and turned to Jane, and he saw it in him, the same loss that he experienced, "I understand." Beorn said simply.

"Afterwards, Viridian was knighted, and the map translated. Then the company went on their way while I stayed behind to meet with the Imperial leader here on the planet." Gandalf stated.

"So what happened next?" Beorn asked Thorin.

"We walked along the pass, and came with in a battle between stone giants. After a harrowing escape we found shelter in a small cave and made to sleep for the night till the sorcerer who created the storm left." Thorin explained.

"It was a trap." Viridian explained as he finally got a hold of himself, "Fortunately we were able to fight off the orcs. Unfortunately they still got some of us, Thorin, Balin, Pretty boy over there," he pointed to Fili, who scowled at him, "Niwen, and Bilbo."

"So being the rational group we were." Du began, "After giving them every opportunity we exterminated the entire Goblin population of goblin town."

Beorn nodded in approval.

"After we got out, Viridian made a new friend." Du added.

"I wouldn't call him a friend." Viridian said, "Just a poor soul I am trying to help."

"Not much point in it now since we left him behind when the orcs attacked us on the mountain."

"I gave him a warning of the attack and told him to come find me, he has survived a long time he will find me." Viridian told Du.

"You were attacked on the mountain by orcs?" Beorn asked.

"We are being hunted." Thorin said, his fist clenched, "By Azog the defiler." he bit out, "He attacked us on the mountain, and we fought him off set the wargs goblins and the grove on fire in the process sorry about that."

Beorn's eyes hardened when he heard the name, he turned to Thorin, "Is he dead?"

Thorin gulped at the dark look the man was holding, "No, the battle was going poorly after he caused a rockslide that Viridian there stopped, his great wolf pinned him to the ground."

"Thorin he's not interested in that." Viridian said, "No Beorn, he suffered a fate worse than death." grinning he then pointed to Bilbo "Beorn meet Bilbo, The Humiliator of Azog." as Viridian said this Thorin raised the hobbits arm up.

"Stop calling me that, please." Bilbo begged.

"Bilbo you literally tackled the orc and stabbed him over and over again. If it wasn't for his rage at being humiliated, you might have killed him. That and his big wolf was a problem, but yeah."

Beorn eyed Bilbo before jovially slapping his shoulder with his enormous hands.

"I am pleased to meet the Humiliator of Azog, the pale orc. I suspect your name will be remember in many a song and tale."

"I don't want to be remember in song and tale!" Bilbo blubbered, "I just… I just couldn't let Thorin die."

"Well you will be in mine Bilbo! The humiliator of Azog!" he chuckled heartily before he sobered, "but he must be killed soon, otherwise he will do to your people what he did to mine, him and his spawn."

Bilbo paled at that, gulping as he did.

The company was surprised to hear that Azog had a spawn.

"How did you survive the attack?" Beorn asked.

Gandalf was the one to answer, "I called upon Gwaihir to help us and he brought us to this land."

Beorn nodded in acceptance, "You are free to sleep here for the night, I will see you in the morning."

The next day the group awoke and the animals served breakfast in the form of pastries made with honey and doe.

"Wow these animals are well trained." Niles commented.

"That we are," the dog answered with a high pitched voice that sounded like a child, causing the troopers and Jedi to stop and stare.

"Sir." Dex began.

"What is it rook?" Jane asked as he stared at the dog.

"I'd like to file for medical leave, I think I am going insane."

"Does it have to do with the dog that just spoke?"

"You heard it to?"

"Yes." Jane answered.

"I'm pretty sure we all heard it." Niles answered he turned to Alaya, "You heard it to right?"

"Unfortunately."

"I heard it too." Jaing muttered

"Wait? Are you surprised by this?" the Dog asked them, the imperials and Jedi nodded, "You mean to tell me that a two legged cat woman right there and flying dragons don't surprise you but your are surprised by us?"

"Well a wolf spoke the night before last, but I assumed it was a quirk the Vong gave to it." Viridian admitted.

"Nope, animals have been capable of speaking on Arda thanks to the Valar." the Dog answered, "We always been talking!"

"Ah." Xey said in understanding with a nod, "That makes sense."

"So we're not going insane." Jak sighed with relief.

"Oh, maybe you are!" the dog said cheekily, "Mebbe you been crazy this whole time and I'm the poor sod who's gotta pull the insanity out you! Oh poor me, that sounds like a lot work!"

"If you are done mocking us, we will join the rest of the company." Viridian said to the dog as he patted it on the head, "Thanks for breakfast."

"You're welcome."

"Where is Gandalf?" Bilbo asked as they came with in earshot.

"I think that's his favorite question to ask." Du said to Viridian.

"No idea, he'll turn up." Viridian assured him.

Gandalf didn't turn up until that evening, but when he did the dwarves bombarded him with questions, "Good gracious, one question at a time! But not till after supper I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."

Though as soon as he finished his plate of pasties, the Dwarves again bombarded him with questions to the point that Gandalf slammed his staff down and shouted, "ONE AT A TIME!"

"Where have you been all day?"

"I have been picking out bear tracks. There must have been a regular bears' meetings outside here last night. I soon saw that Beorn could not have made them all, there being far too many of them, and they were of various sizes, too. I should say there were little bears, large bears, ordinary bears, and gigantic big bears, all dancing around outside from dark to nearly dawn.

"They came from almost every direction, except from the west over the river. In the direction of the mountains only one set of footprints led, none coming, and only one going away from here. I followed these as far as the Carrok. There they disappeared into the river but the water was too deep and strong beyond the rock for me to cross.

"Is is easy enough, as you remember to get from this bank to the Carrok by the ford but on the other side is a cliff standing up from a swirling channel. I had to walk miles before I found a place wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back to pick up the tracks again. By that time, however, it was too late for me to follow them far. They went straight off in the direction of the pine-woods on the east side of the Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the wargs the night before last. And now, I think I have answered you other question, too." Gandalf answered, taking a long and deep breath after the end of his long winded, multi-paragraph explanation.

"Gandalf." Du began, "All you had to say was 'I found some bear tracks, and apparently some bears mated outside, and then I followed a set to the mountains.'"

Viridian chuckled, "I like his way, it's much more entertaining."

Gandalf chuckled at that.

"Why is he going that way?" Bilbo asked.

"To verify our story." Thorin answered, "I would do the same."

Gandalf nodded, "Indeed, well let's get some sleep so we can have our wits about us in the morning."

The next morning they were all wakened by Beorn himself, "So, here you all are still." he said as he picked up the hobbit and laughed, "Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet, I see," he poked Bilbo softly in the belly, "Little bunny is getting nice and fat again on bread and honey." he chuckled heartily as Bilbo's eyes widen to the point they might pop out of their sockets, "Come and have some more!"

Throughout breakfast, Beorn was a lot more cheerful and jolly then he was previously. He laughed at their jokes, and told some of his own. He also told them some disturbing news that he suspected the Orcs might be making an army to hunt them or to punish the people they thought were sheltering them, and that he got this from a goblin and a warg that he found on patrol.

"It was a good story, that one of yours," Beorn said, "But I like it better now that I am sure it is true. You must forgive me for not taking your word. If you lived near the edge of Mirkwood, you would take the word of no one that you did not know as well as your brother or better. As it is, I can only say that I have hurried home as fast as I could to see that you were safe and to offer you any help that I can. I shall think more kindly of dwarves after this. Killed the Great Goblin, killed the Great Goblin!" he chuckled fiercely to himself.

"What did you do to the goblin and the Warg?" Bilbo asked suddenly.

Beorn grinned "Come and see."

They followed him around the house. There they saw the goblin's head was stuck outside the gate and a warg-skin was nailed to a tree just beyond. The group came to a simple conclusion: Beorn was a fierce and ruthless enemy. But now he was their friend, fortunately.

So after the truth about their intentions came forward, Beorn agreed to supply Ponies for the dwarves and hobbit, and horses for Gandalf, the Jedi and the squad for their journey to the forest, and he would laide them with enough food to last them for weeks with care and packed so as to be as easy as possible to carry-nuts, flour, sealed jars of dried fruits, and earthenware pots of honey, and twice baked cakes that would keep good for a long time and on a little of which they could march far.

"My good man." Niles began, "I dare say you make some of the finest of baked goods I have ever had, second only to my mother-please don't take offence, it's just I have a bias for the lovely woman who raised me-but the thing is Mirkwood does not have very many drinkable sources of water in it when you get on the other side of the forest, and while your delicious goods may be filling and wonderful for our weary souls, it makes a man parched."

Beorn chuckled and provided them enough water to last them a while, and sacks with which to fill them. He then provided the dwarves bows and arrows; telling them of the enchanted stream, "It is black and strong which crosses the path. That you should neither drink of nor bait in it for I have heard that it carries enchantment that causes great drowsiness and forgetfulness. And in the dim shadows of that place, I don't think you will shoot anything wholesome or unwholesome without straying from the path. That you MUST NOT do for any reason."

Alaya chuckled nervously, "Yeah, the enchanted river… yeah." she looked at Niles, "one word out of you and you're dead."

Niles chuckled out, "I didn't say anything."

"You tried to swim in it didn't you?" Xey asked with a knowing look.

Jane chuckled, "You could say that."

"Please stop." Alaya sighed.

"Alright we won't pry any more." Du smirked, "...for now."

Beorn told them that they should ride quickly as the orcs would go south many miles and run along the edge of the forest to cut them off. He also suggested to head north as that will be what they least expect. It did also lead them closer to their stronghold.

Viridian looked at Kes, who nodded this was the last leg of the journey they would see each other for a long time, Gandalf, Jane, Niwen, and Celebion looked among each other soon they would be splitting off from the company and it was something they all dreaded.

With that the group began their three day ride to the entrance to the forest across the green meadows and fields.

 **AN: Well I hope you enjoyed, tell me what you loved, and I will see you in the next chapter.**


	35. The Second Perilous Mission

**AN: Man I am on fire, this one is a little short I know but it just was so good I didn't feel the need to add anymore. Special thanks to Jacob for editing.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters**

The Second Perilous Mission

The first night Viridian offered to keep watch as the group slept. Off in the distance, he saw a bear, and he instantly knew it was Beorn keeping an eye on them or his animals, maybe both. With him there, Viridian actually felt at ease as now now that he really didn't need to worry all that much about the orcs attacking them. Still... he could only think about the coming split.

Viridian looked back at the company and sighed. Over the course of these months he had come to love them deeply. Of course, there was still an issue with Jaing, but all in all he still was a bit anxious about leaving them to go to the fortress of Dol Guldur. Then he sensed Kes in the dark; still awake with her anxiety keeping her up much like his left him up.

"Kes?" Viridian whispered, "Are you okay?"

Kes sighed and sat up then made his way over to him, "I couldn't sleep." she admitted.

Viridian nodded, "And I can't put myself at ease, even with Beorn out there."

Kes looked out and nodded upon seeing the bear in the distance, "It's what's coming." she stated.

Viridian sighed "Yeah."

Kes turned to Viridian, and turned his head to look at her, "I am scared." she admitted.

Viridian nodded, "I am too. But at the same time… I feel like this is the right path, like I am supposed to go there. It feels like that something will be decided there and I can't avoid it."

"I feel it too, and it scares the hell out of me because whatever this is, it could be good or bad."

Viridian nodded, "Whatever happens, I will see you again, I promise and you know that when I make a promise."

"You intend to keep it." Kes smiled, "Just come back safely."

Viridian nodded, "I will do what I can, mi amor." he reached up and cupped her face, the moon reflecting off her blonde hair that she now had tied in a braid, and the light casting deep blues on her face. Viridian's fingers stroked over her cheek, working down to her neck, his eyes observing her detail of her battle-wearied face. They'd been fighting for so long, running for so long and suffered so long and yet… she was truly beautiful and just like the night before his fight with Keen, the spell over took them and he pulled her into a kiss. Their presence in the force merged again this time, much brighter than that night and much more pleasant even though that felt impossible. Viridian laid her down on the grass still kissing her.

Kes actually began to try and remove his armor, her fingers working through the strapping when they heard someone clear their throat.

They couple stopped and looked up to see Bofur, "it's my turn to watch, and besides you really should be doing that in a bed it's much more comfortable."

Viridian chuckled, "Damn it, Bofur… please don't tell anyone."

"My lips are sealed." the dwarf assured them, with a smile.

The next two nights were not as eventful. It was the fourth morning, almost high noon when they approached the entrance to Mirkwood.

"Alright, let the ponies go, they know the way back to their master." Gandalf stated. The dwarves were a little reluctant but they also wanted to stay in good gracious with Beorn so they began to undo their supplies.

Viridian sighed as he still held onto his horse, "Gandalf, it's time we told them."

Thorin stopped and turned to the Wizard, "Told us what?" he demanded.

"Thorin." Viridian began, "Before you get mad allow me to explain. Gandalf, Celebion, Niwen Jane and I will not be making the trip to Mirkwood with you."

The company looked at each other for a moment except for Kes and the Squad.

"Why?!" Thorin demanded.

Viridian continued, "There is a whole slew of reasons allow me to explain. Are you familiar with the fortress of Dol Guldur?"

"What business would you have there?" Balin asked them.

Viridian looked up at Niwen and Celebion then at Gandalf and Jane, "There are a few things. First, there is a whole bunch of prisoners suffering in those prisons. One of them was…" Viridian stopped and turned to Gandalf.

Thorin turned to Gandalf, "Who? Who was this prisoner?"

Gandalf sighed, "It was your father, Thorin. Thrain. In fact, it was there I got the map and key from him."

Thorin felt as though a boulder slammed into his chest at that and the dwarves all looked down, "M-my father… Azog wasn't lying, was he?" though he knew the truth.

Gandalf shook his head, tears running over his cheeks as he wished he could say otherwise, "It is our goal to lead an army into that fortress and tear it asunder and to release those prisoners."

Thorin took in a deep breath, "Okay, I can understand that, but what about you Celebion and Niwen? Why are you going there?"

Celebion looked at Niwen, who swallowed nervously, "I was in those prisons for some time when Arthinor was there," she clenched her eyes shut and then with great effort got out, "and my children are in those prisons and I will not allow them to suffer anymore if I can help it!"

Everyone in the company that didn't know this now understood, and Thorin nodded in acceptance. Then he turned to Jane.

"What is yours?"

"Viridian is going, that is all I need."

Thorin nodded then turned to Viridian, "I have a pretty good understanding of why you are going… but I feel there's more."

"There is another reason, there is a Jedi near the area of Dol Guldur I plan on getting into contact with him and then we will meet you Laketown when our errend is spent."

Thorin closed his eyes for a moment then opened them his eyes hard with wrath, then he spoke in Dwarvish at them.

Viridian turned to Gandalf, "He said to make haste… and asked us to do some not so courteous things to them."

"Oh I will Thorin." Viridian nodded. He then turned to the other Jedi, "Keep them out of trouble okay?"

Du sighed, "Make my job impossible why don't ya, getting into trouble is my speciality!" he sighed, "Just… kick their karking shebs."

Viridian smiled and nodded. With that, Gandalf and the others mounted their horses and took off the other way, heading to the south. Viridian turned around in his seat and looked across the way at Kes, who in turn held his gaze for long stretching seconds. Viridian probably would've sat there forever were it not for Jane, who came up to him and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry. You'll see her again."

Viridian nodded, and waved at Kes. She waved right back at him, smiling finally. With that, Viridian turned in his saddle and continued along the path, the rest of the company slowly disappearing from sight as the sun reached mid day.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed this little snack, don't worry there is more to come, much more, until then I will see you all in the next chapter**


	36. Of Spiders and Magic rings

**AN: Well this chapter was certainly fun to write, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help with editing and some scenes.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my Characters.**

Of Spiders and Magic Rings

To say that the trek through the dark forest was a hard journey would be an understatement. It was a soul crushing and tortuous affair; the only ones who didn't seem to be affected were the Imperials.

"Seriously, how do you take this?" Bilbo asked as he trudged along the path.

"We left our souls here." Dex answered cheekly.

"The rook is just joshing with you," Niles laughed at the company, "we've done training exercises in the forest after the Commander made the alliance with Thranduil's people, and the men that live in the forest."

"Why would anyone want to live here?" Kili groaned as he gagged on the smell.

"From what I understand, there was a time when this place was actually pleasant. It was called the Green Wood then." Alaya explained.

"Ugh, let's find the elves, then. They know we're coming and they can help us get the hell out of here quicker." Du growled.

"Don't worry, if we stick to the path, and keep walking, we'll get out of here in about two and a half weeks." Niles assured them.

A collective groan was heard throughout the company.

"It's already been three days!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"That's good, you can count." Alaya quipped.

"Don't worry, if we get out of here we'll be stronger for it." Kes said as she ducked under a branch.

"I hope you are right." Thorin said stiffly. He actually seemed better off then the others, well not really. His anger had become a constant companion and given what he learned recently, the company didn't blame him.

That night the company made camp. Thorin called Balin and Dwalin to speak with him, "Did I make the right choice?" he asked them.

Balin rose an eyebrow, "What choice do you mean, laddie?"

Thorin sat down, "When my father learned of his father's death, he declared war upon the orcs of the misty mountains… I opted to continue on this quest of ours and let his death go."

"But you didn't. Gandalf and the others will take care of it." Balin assured him, "Thorin, it is important to get to Lake town so we can plan to exact revenge upon the dragon, should he yet live, for it is he who put us in this position in the first place."

Dwalin nodded in agreement, "That Dragon is the cause of all our woes. If it were not for him, Thror, Thrain and all our kin who died would not have met their ends the way they did."

Thorin took in a deep breath, "Smaug is a part of our trouble, yes… but in part so are we, it was our greed that brought him to us in the first place."

Ballin looked back at the Jedi for a moment, "They really do set a marvelous example," Balin commented, "Their stories about their order and the faults that plagued them... I hope they get the chance to rebuild into something greater."

"They will, and so will we." Thorin vowed.

The next few days wore on. The Company slowly but surely became used to the environment that was Mirkwood, with its treacherous overgrowth and foliage so thick it choked out the sun. They followed the path till it came to the ruins of a bridge, its superstructure split down the middle and spilling into the river.

"What happened?" Bofur asked as he studied the bridge.

"Rotted away." Alaya said.

"There is a boat somewhere near here to get across." Dex explained.

The company searched the bank, till Bilbo exclaimed, "I see it it's over on the otherside… why would it be on the other side!?"

"Because the Elves live over there." Jaing deadpanned.

"How far away is it?" Thorin asked.

"About twelve yards." Bilbo said, "can we throw a hook over there?"

"Oh sure completely forget about our TK abilities, why don't ya?" Du said sarcastically, "or that we could probably make the jump."

"Oh right… I forgot." Bilbo said sheepishly.

Du shook his head, amused, and leapt across the river, untied the rope and sent the boat to the company. Thorin went across first with Bombur going last.

Abruptly they heard a splash. They looked over and saw that Bombur the fattest Dwarf fell into the river.

"You have got to be kidding me!" several members of the company exclaimed as they fished him out of the black enchanted river.

When they did, they ended up having to carry him for the next few days while he slept peacefully.

"Why did we bother fishing him out?!" Niles exclaimed as it was his turn to carry the dwarf.

"Because he is a member of our company."

"You are much better then most of the Empire, then. We're taught to leave men behind if they compromised the mission! Especially if they do stupid poodoo." Alaya said, "Though Commander Libil is against that for us here."

Abruptly Bombur woke up and flailed off of Niles, looking around confused, "You're alright?"

"Where am I?" Bombur asked.

It turned out that Bombur had forgotten everything after Bilbo's party. The company told him enough to get him up to speed and he wished he didn't wake up as he was having a pleasant dream.

Niles grinned, "Don't feel bad. Alaya was the same way."

"Shut up." Alaya snarled through clenched teeth.

"Oh come on, tell us the story." Janus begged.

"No." Alaya groaned.

Niles chuckled, "Later, let's get out of here first."

"How about we have that conversation never!" Alaya exclaimed.

"It must have been extremely embarrassing." the company chuckled.

"Shut up." Alaya ground out.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'd be flattered." Niles grinned.

Alaya stopped short and turned to Niles, a look of murder hidden behind her helmet, "You didn't."

"No… a little birdie told him."

"Given what we have seen at Beorn's house, that does sound plausible." Jaing chuckled.

Alaya quivered with rage, "YOU'RE ALL BASTARDS!"

"Alaya." Niles said, his tone serious, "We did not tell him anything, I swear, we're just giving you the piss." he said.

Alaya turned to the Jedi, they nodded he was telling the truth, she sighed with relief, "Good."

"That being said, he does know." Niles said, "He asked the cap'n about why you were giving him looks while we were in Rivendell."

Alaya snorted in amusement before she saw that the Jedi expression being puzzled, "You're serious aren't you?"

"Yes I am." Niles answered, "I saw them talking."

"Oh no."

"Hey you never know, he might be vaguely interested." Niles shrugged.

"He's Immortal and killed a literal demon. I am a stormtrooper spec ops sure but still a mortal."

"Oh you are interested in the gold haired elf! HAHAHAHA" Du laughed falling over, "Wow you aim high."

With that the company sometimes teased Alaya about her misplaced love interests. She would in turn draw her rifle and they stopped, though that didn't stop them from continuing behind her back. As night fell, they set up camp, everyone practically dropping from the rigorous march and falling into deep rest within moments.

Bilbo dreamt of the Shire, of course. Of his home, his furniture, his books, his cupboard of cheeses and bread… which he would have to restock when he got home. But most of all was the warm hearth, the flames tickling him as he lay out next to it. But something was wrong. The flames continued to tickle him, like little hairs brushing against his skin. He felt it everywhere, even through his clothes.

He tried to get away from the fire, but no matter how far away he got, the tickling never stopped. Then he felt something else. Something… sticky. His eyes shot open, and before him was a massive spider! Its mandibles were rubbing over his skin, its breath hissing softly as it slowly spun him into a web, humming a monstrous tune. Without thinking, Bilbo withdrew his sword and swiped the spider's arm away from him and stood up, his ring falling out of his pocket and landing near the abomination.

"YOU HURT ME!" It hissed as it stepped around the ring, its leg almost getting it, "I'M GOING TO SUCK YOUR BONES OUT, FLESHBAG!"

Bilbo felt something within him stir and he hurled himself at the spider, viciously and ruthlessly brutalizing the creature with his sword.

"IT STINGS!" the spider cried, as the blade made contact with the exoskeleton of the creature, "It STINGS!" finally with a war cry Bilbo stabbed it through one of the eight eyes, causing the creature to slump to the ground dead.

Bilbo looked at the sword then at the spider, "Now thats not a bad name," he held up the sword and spoke to it, "I will give you a name, and I shall call you **Sting!** "

He then reach down and picked up the ring and looked at it for a moment, his reflection staring back at him from the gold work. He contemplated what had just happened and what Viridian was able to glean from Smeagol, 'Could… this ring be what caused his descent into madness? Is this how it starts?' his thoughts asked him.

Bilbo shook his head, "No, don't be silly. If that was true then Viridian would have killed you for the ring, Bilbo. Just like that other Hobbit Smeagol killed." Though if he was honest with himself, he knew that was very flimsy logic. Viridian had much better control over himself then a normal person.

Bilbo looked around, noticing the company was missing. Then he heard the sound of a lightsaber in the distance and began to tread carefully into that direction, his eyes wary for more spiders in the dark. After some time, he saw Xey locked into combat with a group of the horrid monsters, her blade slicing through some and the others the blade seemed to just glance off of! He realized why: some of them were encased in the same kind of armor the Yuuzhan Vong used, making the spiders look almost like giant black crabs. Bilbo growled in frustration, those abominable space aliens were growing incredibly insufferable. He approached the closest armored Spider with the sneakiness of a lioness, and plunged Sting into the gaps of the armor, striking the spider through a vital area and causing it to collapse dead.

After that, Xey and Bilbo took care of the other spiders with varying degrees of difficulty, many of them ran away running off in a certain direction, screaming obscenities as they went.

"What happened?" Bilbo asked.

"We were ambushed," she panted, struggling to catch her breath, "in the night... dozens of them swarmed the camp... took the company."

Bilbo gulped, "Well let's go get 'em then."

Xey nodded and the duo began to follow the trail till they came just outside the nest. They heard the Spiders discussing how they were going to eat the company.

Bilbo pursed his lips, and turned to Xey, "I have an idea." he whispered to her.

Xey looked at him, "And that is?"

Bilbo reached into his pocket ad reluctantly pulled out the ring, "I am going to disappear do not be alarmed," with that he put the ring on, and vanished from sight. Xey stared at where he'd been for a moment before hearing a stone being thrown into the opposite direction, and the spiders went off to investigate the noise.

Bilbo and Xey took advantage of this distraction to cut the Company loose and get them all armed.

Du growled as he was freed from his silken prison, "Not one word of this."

Janus got the web out of his hair and scowled, "I am getting sick of these Yuuzhan Vong."

Niles and Alaya snarled at that, "Oh, I am with you!" Jaing exclaimed.

"We better get moving, they will be back soon!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"Let these spawn of Ungoliant come!" Oin snarled only to collapse.

Ulra sighed, "Most of us are in no condition to fight them. The venom they injected us with is weakening us. We were lucky it didn't outright kill us."

"It's how the spawn of Ungoliant like their prey, still alive." Oin groaned

The company heared the stampede of the spiders coming back. Bilbo pursed his lips and turned to the Company, his face grim, "I will hold them off."

"Bilbo?" Thorin asked, worry flashing across his brow.

"I am going to disappear." with that he put on his ring before the Company, turning invisible to their shock, "Now go! I will do the stinging!"

Thorin shouted for the Company to run off while Bilbo, now invisible, turned to face the spiders.

The spiders charged in his direction, swarming over every surface with unnerving quickness.

"Why, hello there!" Bilbo shouted out from the gloom, "Are you looking for me?"

"WHERE IS MEATBAG!" one of the spiders hissed, "WHERE-" a sword through its armored spine was its answer, the thing spasming out on its back in pure pain as green viscous blood pooled from its body. The Spiders swarmed around the body, trying to find where the killer had went. Then another spider fell, this one with its face split in two.

"WHAT ARE YOU!?" the spiders screamed as yet another of their company slumped dead to the floor, it underbelly slashed open.

"Sting!" Bilbo shouted from the shadows, "I am Sting! And I will kill every last one of you if you do not flee!"

Bilbo punctuated his point by stabbing out the lead spiders clustered eyes. As it cowered away, its legs hovelling over its bleeding face, it screamed, "RETREAT! WE ARE NO MATCH FOR STING!" when Bilbo stabbed the spiders and moved about, the Spiders screamed out in pain and shock as the invisible enemy stung them to death causing them to run away heading south.

After that was over Bilbo followed the company when he saw them next he saw them surrounded by an elvish hunting party.

"Our Lord sent us to find you. We've been out here for days!" the lead elf exclaimed.

"Elrond's messengers sure do know how to make time, don't they?" Niles quipped.

"Yes they do," the elf nodded, "we will escort you back to the palace where you can rest and meet with the king before you head on your way to the town of Lake men."

The company all nodded in agreement, and followed the hunting party to the palace, Bilbo took off his ring and put it in his pocket and quietly slipped into the company.

The elves brought the company to the palace of the Elvenking along a well mannered road. There, they entered the underworld of the elves, built deep into the root of tree and rock with the masses of hundreds staring at them in awe and puzzlement. Minutes later, they came to the throne room itself, a chamber of ebony work where there sat the king of Mirkwood, staring high above from his throne with a dismissive look. He was like many of the other elves the company had met: tall, rather thin with sculpture like postures and structure, his hair so light it almost glowed. His eyes however were what seperated him from the rest, even from Elrond himself. They were cold with an air of supremacy. But there was a hardness to them, the sight of a man who'd seen conflict for millennia and had somehow become accustomed to it. He was dressed in ceremonial robes of green and gold, and upon his brow an ebony crown with an ornate headdress behind him. He studied the company for a moment before he cracked a slight disparaging smile.

"So…" he mused softly, an arrogant glint in his eyes, " **this** is Thorin Oakenshield? **This** is the company that has caused so much trouble that their deeds are carried fervorously upon the wind? You are certainly dressed for battle, if not for a stroll through our woods."

Du groaned softly and whispered to Jak, "Great, he's one of those elves."

"'One of those elves'?" the King smiled as he rose from his throne to stride down to the company, his impressive height towering over even the already lofty Niles, "pray tell me, my horned friend, are you a master of a dominion? A ruler of a people under siege? The one who must hold back the darkness that plagues our home? If you are not, then what right does one such as yourself have to judge one such as I?"

"Well, when you put it like that, I can appreciate your burden."

"Duty, not burden," he replied with a half-hearted smile.

Kes gave Du a look, and turned to the Elven king, "Forgive him he sometimes lacks tact."

Du shrugged at that, "I'm a warrior not a diplomat."

Thranduil chuckled, "There may come a time when you must be diplomatic, my horned freind."

He turned to Thorin, "I know why you are here. The messengers of my Kin told me as such and that I should be expecting you. I must say it truly surprised me that you survived the forest and all the dangers it possesses, even with the help of our most esteemed allies." he said turned to the the stormtroopers, "Where is your captain?" he asked Niles.

"I am in command." Jaing said, "He was sent elsewhere, I am incharge of the squad till he returns."

"A pity," Thranduil sighed, "well Thorin, I shall allow your company to bathe and dine with us, and give you rest for the next day, and I shall have your leaders of each of your members eat at my table." he turned and sat in his throne, "You are my guests."

After the company bathed and had their armor cleaned, Kes, Jaing, and Thorin sat at Thranduil's table to eat.

"I thought that twenty four members were in your company Thorin I only count twenty,"

"Four of them had to leave for a bit to tend to another matter." Thorin explained.

"I see." Thranduil nodded in understanding, he then turned to Kes, "So you must be one of the Jedi here. I must say I thought Elrond said that their leader was a young man."

Kes gulped, "Viridian is one of the four that went to deal with the issue. I was asked to represent the others."

Thranduil rose an eyebrow, "You worry for his safety?"

"Of course I do, he's my fellow Jedi."

Thranduil closed his eyes in amusement and a bit in sorrow, "It runs deeper than that, you worry for him as a lover does, it is a feeling I know all too well."

Jaing shrugged, "It makes sense they are engaged to be married."

Kes gave him a look.

"He did literally scream it from the rooftops." Thorin chuckled.

Thranduil chuckled in amusement, "If it is worth anything I wish you both the best."

"Thank you."

Thranduil turned to Jaing, "It surely is a pity that your captain is not here, I got the prisoner ready for nothing."

Thorin cleared his throat, "Prisoner?"

Jaing nodded, "He's referring to a female elf that tried to assassinate Commander Libel. Jane managed to subdue her."

"Wait, an elf did this?" Thorin asked in surprise.

Thranduil shrugged, "Though such acts of crime is rare among elves it does happen."

"I take it she's still not talking?" Jaing asked.

"She will only talk to your captain." Thranduil told him, "Personally I would have her executed by now but the commander wants to find out the truth about her. Can't say I blame him. I am curious myself."

Kes looked back at the Jedi, "Perhaps we can help?"

Thranduil rose and eyebrow.

"Between the six of us, we might be able to get her to talk." she explained.

"Uh…" Xey began, "That is incredibly dangerous, we could end up destroying this person's mind."

Thranduil shook his head, "I must decline the offer, I'd rather have her wits about her if only for a while."

Kes nodded in understanding.

"That being said, if you want to make an attempt at getting any information out of her. You are welcome to try."

"We'll have a go at it." Du agreed.

With that Thranduil called for more wine for the guests and they sat and talked, it turned out that as you got past the first initial sense of arrogance the elven king was not so bad, and he enjoyed the tales that the company had to tell of their journey.

Jaing turned to Thranduil, "I am actually surprised that Legolas is not here, where is he?"

"Legolas was sent on an errand to our kin in Lorien, and could not be here for this meeting unfortunately."

"Ah I see." Jaing nodded in understanding.

The company began to feel fatigue weighing on them, and Thranduil told them to get some rest. The dwarves and hobbit did so, but the Jedi, Imperials, and Mandoa, asked, "where is the prisoner?"

Thranduil nodded, "Follow me." with that he stood up and lead them to the dungeons. There sat inside an energy field surrounded by a cage the elven prisoner. She had fair skin and long blonde hair, her eyes grey as murky pools of water. She was dressed in a simple pale tunic, stained and ragged. She looked up to see the newcomers, her eyes narrowed and hard.

"I will only speak to the Imperial Captain who bested me."

Du crossed his arms, "That's too bad. We're what you are getting, so suck it up and tell us what we want to know."

The prisoner looked at Du for a moment before chuckling, "Straight to the point, I like that."

It was then that Ulra stepped forward, sitting across from the elf with her legs crossed and her head tilted slightly sideways. The elf snorted.

"You would have a blind woman be my interrogator?"

"I may not have eyes, but I see far more clearly than most." she replied with a smile, "For example, you are not who you seem to be."

Something flashed in the elf's eyes so quickly everyone there almost didn't notice it. Almost.

"How do you mean?"

"You are not of this wood, nor of any other lineage of elf we have encountered. No, I sense you are… something different."

"Sense?" the elf said in surprise, "I've never met a human sorceress before."

"IT'S NOT MAGIC!" Du exclaimed, but Ulra held up a hand, silencing him.

"To you, perhaps it is. To us, the Force is the very essence of the universe. We are the blessed few allowed to utilize it for good. And I am not human… not entirely. I am Miraluka. We are born blind, but our connection to the Force and its ability to sense the world around us is… greater, than most."

The elf's eyes widened, "You are the children of the Anathema, the demons that harness the powers that my masters fear."

"Demons?" Ulra chuckled, "I am not sure whether to be insulted or flattered. But let us discuss your masters, now. They are the Vong, are they not?"

The elf's glare turned venomous as she spat, "You may tear my mind and body apart, witch, but I will not utter another word."

Jak hand clenched into a fist, and he had the sudden urge to introduce it to the elf's face. He however felt Ulra's presence in his mind and he relaxed, reluctantly.

"You are under the assumption I am here to torture you," Ulra said calmly, "I am not. Nor will I harm your mind or body. I won't have to," she added with a smile, "for example, this form is not your own."

The elf's face paled with sudden fear and she clutched at her body defensively. Ulra continued, and the elf sudden felt an unearthly presence within her psyche, strangely warm and inviting. Yet, she still shuddered in fear at its touch.

 _Show me who you truly are,_ she heard Ulra's voice in her mind. She clutched at the sides of her head and screamed.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

 _Show me who you truly are,_ Ulra repeated, _shed this disguise and show me._

It was then that something profound changed within the elf. She complied despite her own resistance. She screamed as her body began to change like a snake shedding its skin. Her once pale skin become gray as soot, her hair as black as coal. Her bodily features become sharp and almost hollow, her eyes brightening to a blood red, her ears became as jagged and pointed as daggers. Worser still, her disguise had hid how frail and weak she truly was. Though not emancipated, she still looked as though she'd been starved, thin and whipped as rope, and her gaze was just as desperate.

"Please... stop!" she begged, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. To all, especially the elven lord himself, they exchanged looks of horror, disgust and even pity.

"What… foul monstrocity is this!?" Thranduil spat.

"We are the Yuuzhan Vong Shapers first attempt." she wheezed.

"First attempt at what?" Kes asked fearfully.

"Their first attempt at creating their own breed of elf," Ulra answered, shaking her head sadly, "I suspect that the dark warrior Viridian and you," she pointed at Du, "described seeing at Rivendale is the same as this… Dark Elf."

"In the name and service of the dark lord, we are called the Morgolag Hai." the dark elf coughed, "please stop, I beg you!"

"What were you doing here in Mirkwood?" Ulra asked, her voice becoming almost booming within the elf's mind, "Why did you try to kill the Imperial Commander?"

"To throw the interlopers and the elves into war with each other."

Xey turned to Ulra, "Why is she in pain? Are you doing something to her?"

Ulra sighed, "She appears to have something within her body causing her pain. Since I introduced the light to her, she can't absorb it anymore with the Dark Side. It's as though a battle is being waged within her… and she is suffering as a result."

The dark elf whimpered and collapsed to the ground, clutching at her arms in pure, pathetic frailty. She gasped and clawed for breath, but none came. Instead, only her tears flowed and pooled around her body as she thrashed about on the floor.

"So… your telling me that the Vong literally engineered her so that if she ever tried to forsake the Dark Side, she'd be forced to suffer endless agony?" Janus asked, no small amount of outrage in his voice.

Jaing, despite his misgivings about this elf, couldn't help but feel as if in many ways they were the same, both bread to fight for a cause they might not even give a damn about had they been given a chance.

Alaya turned to Ulra, "Can you soothe her pain? I heard that was something you jedi could do?"

Ulra looked up, "I tried to do that already. Her body is literally going to hurt her the more light side energy I try to introduce. No, she needs to be cured of this by a shaper."

Thranduil sighed, "Then it is decided. I shall have her put out of her misery."

Ulra bolted upright, "What?!"

"Ulra." Kes said, holding her hand out to keep her at bay, "Thranduil, that might not be necessary we might have a chance to…"

"Look." Thranduil interrupted pointing at the suffering creature in the cell, "Believe me when I say I do pity this sad creature. I know you will attempt to convince me that she can be saved. I would long to believe that. But what I see her is a creation of pure darkness that cannot be cured. It can only be… disposed of."

"That's a little harsh." Du admitted, "but I agree. I'd call it a mercy killing and be done with it."

Jaing watched the elf for a moment before he shook his head, "I can't agree to this."

Ulra looked at the clone soldier, her brow creasing. Jaing's eyes narrowed in response

"Jak told me that all clones were surgically implanted with biochips in their brains. To be turned into slave soldiers that turned on the people who fought alongside them for years. The Vong have done something to her body to make her remain loyal to their sick gods, much like how my brothers and I were hijacked to be turned into puppets," his voice then turned into a scream, "WHILE WE BUTCHERED CHILDREN!" he took a deep breath, his hands forming into fists so tight they paled, "So forgive me if I will not accept that killing her is the only way to do this."

Niles fingers snapped, "There may be a way. We could put her into stasis till we get a Shaper, preferably at gunpoint, to fix her… but please tell me we don't have to do this to every single dark elf?"

"Oh hell no, one of them destroyed one of my hearts." Du chorted, his hand reflexively going up to where the wound was.

Ulra looked around, sensing the looks on everybody present, "So we're all in agreement of Niles idea?"

Thranduil sighed, "I will allow you to try this but ultimately you must know you can't save everyone."

"No I can't, but I can save as many as I can and that's enough for me."

With that Ulra opened the cell and deactivated the force field, Jak got a pistol ready in case the dark elf did anything.

Ulra then sat next to the elf and began to comfort the whimpering form as she would a child. She stiffened at first unfamiliar with the feeling and the agony coursing through her body didn't help.

"It hurts." she whimpered.

If Ulra could she would have closed her eyes, "No life deserves this. Your creators will pay for it, I promise. Sleep now."

Ulra concentrated and put the dark elf into a healing trance to help mitigate the pain, Jaing called for a stasis unit and they placed the engineered life form into the pod.

"Are there anymore in my kingdom?" Thranduil asked Ulra, she stretched out with her senses and shook her head.

"Not that I can detect." The Miraluka admitted, "That's not the worst of it though, she's more or less a prototype if you will, the warrior that gravely wounded you Du was a more perfected version."

"So… there's more." Janus stated.

"From what I was able to get from her mind, she is a part of the infiltrator subspecies. They are better equipped for stealth but are very poor in comparison combatively compared to their warrior kin. I suspect it was of the latter we encountered back in Rivendell."

"So on a scale of one to ten, how kriffed are we?" Du asked as he rubbed his chest where the wound was.

"It's really not that bad, thankfully. They've been having trouble mass producing these dark elves, at least that's what she understood from them, but if you want a number I'd say a solid seven." she deadpanned.

"Eh we've survived worse odds." Kes shrugged.

"It's almost like someone is watching out for us." Niles grinned.

Thranduil gave Niles a look, "I was not aware you have come to see the Valar as our watcher?"

"Eh I wasn't talking about them, but they certainly don't hurt." the gaela stormtrooper admitted.

Thranduil nodded in understanding, and said, "We have learned a great deal tonight. I recommend you take your rest and take it well for you have a long road ahead of you tomorrow."

Ulra stepped forward, "I have your word you and your people will not hurt her?"

Thranduil nodded with a reluctant sigh, "No harm will come to her for as long as she is down here."

Ulra nodded with satisfaction, and the group went to their chambers to catch up on their rest. Kes drifted off to a worrisome sleep as she thought about the dangers her husband-to-be was walking into. In her dreams, she prayed to whoever would listen that he would return to her in one piece. She was owed that much at least.

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter tell me what you liked what you didn't like, all that fun stuff I can only improve with feedback people, well anyway I will see you in the next chapter.**


	37. The Dark Fortress

**AN: needless to say this chapter is a fun one, I am both excited and a bit worried about it but unlike Lucas film currently I am rolling the dice, special thanks to Jacob Sailer with some of the battle scenes and the editing.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

The Dark Fortress

The very night they had split off from the company, Beorn in his bear form came charging into the camp, the Bear growled at the group of five.

"Beorn, before you try to tear us apart allow us to explain." Celebion said putting himself between the bear form of Beorn and his daughter while Viridan and Jane fought to stand in front of each other.

Beorn glared at the group, "Speak."

"We are trying to end the suffering going on in Dol Guldur." Gandalf began.

Beorn looked up at the Wizard before sighing and reverting to his human form. Massive layers of matted fur rescinded back into human skin, bones reforming with sickening audibility and the great bear mass shrinking before their eyes into his still impressive human stature that still towered over Gandalf. They also became quite aware of a very obvious truth: Beorn hadn't been wearing any clothes when he'd turn into the bear, and certainly wasn't wearing any when he turned back into a human. When he rose to his his full height with a groan telling the physical trauma his transformation plagued him with, they also got an eyeful.

"Um…" was all Viridian could say. Gandalf raised an eyebrow, Jane's jaw dropped, and while Celebion wasn't affected in the slightest by the display, Niwen certainly was. She blushed from ear to ear so deeply her face might very well turn into a tomato. She hid a giggle with her hand, but found she couldn't turn away. Celebion was quick to to do that for her, taking her in his own large hands and guiding her away from the rather sudden display in a very fatherly like manner.

"Do you have any pants?" Viridian asked quickly.

Beorn nodded and pulled out of the sack his large trousers, and hastily put it on. After that was over without much fuss he turned to Gandalf, "Explain what you mean!"

Gandalf then began to explain how a year past he had infiltrated the fortress as a slave to gather information for the guardians of middle earth, the White Council, and how he met the broken husk that was Thrain, Thorin's father, and the other prisoners he found in the prisons of the abominable place, and now they were on their way to get any last minute information and then would lead an army on the fortess to destroy it.

Beorn nodded in understanding, "But why are all of you going?" he looked at Viridian first.

Viridian took in a deep breath, "There are three major no make that four major reasons for why I am going, one because I can't stand back and let those prisoners suffer, two I owe Celebion and Niwen my service, three Gandalf is my teacher and a students place is by his teacher's side, and four there is a Jedi near that fortress and I am trying to make contact, and plus Jane is coming so I need to watch out for him." he added jokingly.

He looked to Jane, "Viridian is my brother I am going to make sure he is safe, and I want to help them." Jane said nodding towards Celebion and Niwen.

Beorn turned to Celebion and Niwen.

Celebion swallowed, "Remember when I told why i was on the journey with Thorin I said one of the reasons was a personal matter?"

Beorn nodded.

Celebion turned to Niwen, who held tears in her eyes, Celebion pulled her into a hug.

Beorn rose an eyebrow as he waited patiently, he looked among the others and saw some sense of uneasiness.

Niwen took a deep breath, "The man who abducted me from my family… he… raped me and now the children I bore are in those prisons, I am going to get them out."

"We are going to get them out," Celebion said.

Beorn closed his eyes, "I was willing to leave the horses with you before, but now I feel I must allow them to help you with this, in fact I am more then willing to go with you all."

"While I would appreciate the assistance, Beorn, there is another matter you could help us with, and that is getting Gwaihir to prepare for war." Gandalf told him

Beorn nodded, "I will talk to him… are you sure you will not need my assistance at that… accursed place?"

Jane thought about it for a moment, and spoke up, "It might be a good idea for you to have Gwaihir help you make up for the distance to drop you off as close to the fortress as possible so that when things inevitably get hot, you can help out."

Beorn rose an eyebrow at the unusual words.

"I think what he means is, when the fighting starts you can enter into the fray much faster." Celebion explained.

"More or less yes." Viridian confirmed.

"A sound plan." Beorn nodded and smiled, "I can see why you were made a captain."

Jane looked away, "My tactics was not what gave me my rank, it was because I did something that pleased my superiors."

"What was it then?" Beorn asked

Jane sighed, leaning against a tale as he opened the floodgates of a memory he'd wished he could put away, but couldn't.

"Before I became a Captain in the Imperial Army, I was a junior officer in another army. The Grand Army of the Republic. We fought a war against the Separatists, and their… golems."

"Golems?" Beorn asked.

"Droids," he elaborated, "beings made from metal and brought to life by their masters," it wasn't the entire truth, but Jane didn't want to go through the hours long process of explaining computerized motorization to a being who hadn't a clue what that even was. It was enough, and Beorn nodded.

"During the Battle of Casaaren Heights, my entire battalions commanding staff, including our," he was also about to say Clone, but he thought against it, wanting to avoid explaining that bit of history too, "commander, was killed by the bounty hunter Durge. He slaughtered them to a man, and it took us buring him under a mountain to stop him… though, that didn't kill them. It was… it was like a slaughterhouse in the command bunker."

Beorn nodded again, "How did you survive?"

"Luck. Durge threw me against a wall, and I was knocked unconscious. Besides he had no real quarrel with me. He had a massive grudge with our commander. Blood feuds, that sort of thing. By the time I woke, he was gone. And we were being swarmed by a droid force six times our size. My men were being killed. So I… I did the only thing I could."

"You took command."

"Yes. I got as many of my men together, and we held our ground for over two weeks. We ran out of food on the seventh day, water on tenth, and we were down to fighting with clubs and knives on the fourteenth. We should have died that day."

"But you didn't."

A small smile crossed his lips, "One minute, the droids were on top of us. The next, we heard this high-pitched howl, like that of a wolf. Except it wasn't wolves. It was the soldiers of the Wolf Pack, led by Master Plo Koon coming to save us. They charged into the droids with blade and blaster and ripped them to pieces. It was… magnificent to see. Then I fell into a comfortable coma, and I didn't wake for another month. When I did, I was given the Sapphire Star for valor, and offered command of the battalion. I accepted, and served with them for another year before I was… transferred. Now, here I am."

Beorn gave him a warm smile, "You are indeed a brave man, Captain Mallory. A title well earned," he then spoke again, but not with words. In his time, Jane had learned how to read lips, and even with Beorn it was difficult. But what he could make out was, "I can see why she likes you."

To say Jane was thunderstruck by that would be an understatement. But he took it in stride.

"Wait a minute, what happened that caused you to join special forces?" Viridian asked.

Jane had a mix of worry and pride on his face, "There were two things that happened. I fought with and managed to kill an IG-100 magnaguard."

Viridian chuckled, "I remember that. I am surprised you were still breathing, those things give fully trained knights a run for their money."

Jane looked away from Viridian, "The other was for 'bravery and serving above and beyond the call of duty' during order 66." Jane admitted.

Viridian's face lost all of its jovialness instantly, and he managed to ask through a thick voice. "Who?"

Jane clenched his eyes shut, "Kasr Ra."

Viridian sighed. He knew the name, and the person. Once upon the time, they'd been fellow younglings, Clan Members, and later sparring partners. Kasr Ra had been a rather proud and fierce Cathar like Jasmine. However, unlike Jasmine, Kasr was incredibly reckless. Du probably would've liked her, and he was sure of that reason that Jane had been forced to kill her.

That much was confirmed when Jane elaborated on what happened. How when the Order was given, and in the chaos that ensued, Kasr had tried to kill Jane and his entire command staff. She'd swung wild and fiercely inside the confines of the Juggernaut transport, killing two junior officers and multiple Troopers.

"I didn't want to kill her," Jane's voice broke, "but I didn't have a choice. She was like a cornered animal. Utterly scared, and utterly unreasonable. I know, I tried. She called me a liar and a traitor, and then tried to take my head off. One of my troopers jumped in the way and saved my life. I… I shot her then. Point blank to the back of the neck. It was… it was all I could do for her. Make it quick."

Viridian pinched the bridge of his nose and felt tears sting his eyes and he let out a shuddering breath.

"I'm so sorry, Viridian." Jane said.

Viridian looked up at Jane to see tears in his eyes. Viridian shook his head and gave his brother a fierce hug, "You did all you could, I.. I know you would never had killed her had she not left you a choice. You are **my** brother and I forgive you."

The exchanged left obvious questions, and the brothers were quick to explain. How the Jedi were betrayed after an attempt on the Chancellors life, and hunted down without mercy. Their faces broke in pain, but Jane was worse. He more than pain plaguing him. He had pure and utter shame embedded deep in his soul, and he hung his head in silence. That was when Niwen took him in her arms in a hug and comforted him in the way those broken by life and put back together could.

After Beorn was satisfied with this, he volunteered for first watch, while Celebion volunteered for second, Beorn told them that after he woke Celebion he would head off to speak with the lord of the eagles.

That morning Celebion woke the group they made a quick breakfast out of the delicious warm, double baked, oozing with honey bread that Beorn made for them before mounting on their horses and heading off again.

On the third night when they stopped for camp, Gandalf approached Jane, "Captain might I have a moment of your time?"

Jane nodded and walked with Gandalf, "It is clear to me that you have lost a lot in your life, Capitan Mallory."

"You're not wrong sir."

Gandalf sighed, "I understand that Vesse was your daughter."

Jane, took in a breath and he tried not to snap at the wizard, "Yes, she was." he said softly.

"Forgive me, Jane, I do not mean to make this any more painful. Viridian gave me something before you found us, but I have not used it, and nor do I plan to." Gandalf took out the hilt of a lightsaber, and Jane looked at it for a moment, "It was your daughters." Gandalf explained.

Jane looked at the wizard, before he studied the hilt of the beautiful craftsmanship of his daughter's handiwork. It was entirely utilitarian, more a powertool than the elegant weapon of a more civilized era. It was simple with ergonomics in mind, almost entirely silver in color save for the gold bands sandwiched between the emitter and the rounded guard. The handle itself was grooved with many bands to make it easier to grip, with the pommel being a simple metal sphere, much like those found on traditional swords. All in all, his daughter had thought practicality above all else and it made Jane smile for a moment.

"I think she would want you to have it." Gandalf said as he gave it to him, Jane took it tenderly.

"Thank you Gandalf." Jane said with a haggered breath.

"You are most welcome, Captain." with that Gandalf walked back to the camp.

Jane looked at the blade for a moment, then activated the green blade. He held it up above his head in a practice stance and swung, the blade gliding through the air and he found it fit easily into his hand much more than his imperial fabricated one. He looked into the emerald fire of the blade and said, "I promise I will use this blade as you would have. Thank you, my little angel." with that he pressed the activation stud and the blade deactivated into the hilt.

Jane was on watch that night, the moon glistening high above with the soft murmur of the wind and the softer chatter of critters. He looked out over the planes, watching the light reflecting off a nearby lake. Then he heard something stir behind him. With fast reflexes he turned and aimed and saw that it was Niwen. He lowered his blaster, "Couldn't sleep?" Jane asked.

Niwen nodded nervously.

Jane nodded in understanding, "Would you like to sit with me? I would like some company."

Niwen nodded and sat next to him.

"Nightmares?" Jane asked her. Niwen nodded again, biting her lip and sealing her eyes, "It was about your children wasn't it?" he asked knowingly. She looked up at him, pain burrowed deep in her eyes, "I know what it's like. I… I often dream about Vesse." he told her, she felt tears fill up her eyes.

"It was horrible." she admitted, "I saw them suffering at the hands of the orcs, and I was forced to watch, unable to do anything." she was on the verge of sobbing.

Jane pulled her into a hug, and held the crying woman. After five minutes Niwen had significantly calmed down, "What are their names?" Jane asked her.

"Huh?" Niwen asked looking up at him.

"You never mentioned their names."

"Lillian is my daughter's name, my son's name is Ernite, Lily for the flower, Ernite for the precious stone. He has the same eye color as it."

"Those are lovely names." Jane smiled

"I would have given them names of my people, but I didn't know the culture." she explained.

"I think that no one is going to be upset with how you named them." Jane told her, he brushed a bit of her hair behind her ear, "If what you told me of Nagme is true then she is watching out for them, We will get them out, or die trying."

Niwen looked up at him, "I just want them safe."

Jane closed his eyes as he remembered his decision to give Vesse over to the Jedi, "A good parent does."

"Captain?" Niwen asked.

"Forgive me." Jane said, "It's just this all reminds me of the last day I saw Vesse... when I gave her to the Jedi. I thought she would be safer with them. At least, that's what I told myself. In truth, I was terrified. My wife had passed away and in my fear I gave her to someone else when I had my whole family that could help me. I can't help but feel I made the wrong choice."

"From what I understand, your daughter had potential that if left untapped and moot, could mean one of two things. One where nothing would have and she would have never become the greatest version of herself, or another where something terrible would have happened and she would have caused a lot of pain and misery, whether of her own volition or not. So you made the best possible choice, and in doing so, she became a hero."

Jane took in a breath, "The Galaxy doesn't see it like that."

"It doesn't matter what they think! If they are for children dying then they have no right to judge anyone!" Niwen snapped, before she calmed down, "I… I apologize,"

"You're good." Jane said.

"What matters is how you remember her, how your family remembers her. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise be damned because they are wrong."

Jane smiled, "Thank you."

Niwen smiled at him, "Your welcome."

Jane reached up with a shivering hand and caressed her cheek. The glove was cold to the touch, and she flinched. His face flared with shame, but when he removed his hand, she took it in hers and peeled away the glove to reveal the warmer flesh beneath. She took his hand in hers, resting it against her cheek. Her eyes were warm pools that he felt were consuming his heart and soul, and he softly smiled. She returned his with her own, and her eyes dazzled ever so slightly. When they first met, she flinched away from him, afraid. Now here they were. In the next few days anything could happen, but all that mattered was this moment. Jane leaned in, hesitant at first, and their lips met.

Before things could get farther a small metallic sphere hit Jane in his cheek, "OW!" Jane cried as he toppled over, caressing the sudden bruise over his right eye.

Jane looked in the direction where the sphere which he now identified as a pommel to a sword and saw Celebion sitting there, "End her rightly," he playfully growled.

Niwen blushed madly at that.

"What!?" Jane asked.

Viridian who was still laying down with his eyes closed said through his light snoring, "He means wait till you're married."

` "Wha-?" Jane began to ask before his widened in realization, "OH! uh…"

"Just keep that in mind." Celebion told him before he held out his hand. Jane took the pommel and threw it back at the Dunedain, who caught it.

Jane just began to laugh, with Niwen and Celebion joining in.

After that was done, Jane turned to Niwen, "So, what does this mean?" he asked her.

"It means you have a bruise." Niwen chuckled.

"No, I mean what does this mean for our relationship?" Jane asked.

Niwen smiled, "What do you want it to mean?"

Jane took in a breath, "It's been a long time since I had ever gotten this close to someone again, I… I want this to last."

"Me too." Niwen nodded.

"So… what does this mean?" he asked again.

"I…" she tried to look into his eyes, but found she couldn't. Sheepishly, she whispered, "I don't know. I…" but she could say no more. But Jane understood. Regardless of the look her father was giving him, he took her face in his hands and whispered with a smile.

"We'll figure it out as we go."

She smiled and nodded, out of his peripherals. Jane could see Celebion unscrewing his pommel again, so he gave her a kiss, and released her.

After three days, the group could see the fortress in the distance. It's towering black spires tore into the poisoned sky, reaching for the heavens as though to claim them. Viridian felt a sudden, familiar chill deep in his bones. He'd felt that only once in the presence of the servants of the Sith. It proved a point: evil was one and the same. "One more day, before we meet our quarry there." Gandalf said as if he both dreaded this and was relieved it was almost over.

"When will the army arrive?" Viridian asked.

"Three days after us." Gandalf explained.

Jane pursed his lips, "Well… let's go kriff some shebs up or get kriffed."

"Language!" Viridian exclaimed, "But I agree."

Celebion looked at Viridian, "What did he say."

Jane was the one who answered, "Basically either we're going to kill them, or we're going to die."

"I'd choose them." Viridian quipped, a habit he fell into the joke about the stressful situation to come, he noticed.

"So what is the plan?" Niwen asked.

"We'll do what I did to infiltrate it, disguise ourselves as slaves and walk in with the crowd."

"Two of us should stay outside, just in case things go south." Viridian said.

"Agreed." Gandalf nodded, "I want you and Jane to remain outside, then." he said to Viridian.

Viridian considered it for a moment, mulling over the merits of the idea. Viridian was the second most powerful combatant in this little team, and Jane had the technology to keep up, plus the inhabitants of Arda could pass off the slave look better without sacrificing their equipment needlessly. "Alright."

The next day the plan was set in motion. Gandalf, Niwen, and Celebion relieved themselves of their weapons, though Celebion hid a knife up his sleeve while Gandalf continued to carry his staff with a pronounced limp as they marched in with a new batch of slaves, and with them they slipped into the dark gates.

DolGuldur's inner walls were filled with all manner of abominations, leering at them and jeering at the slaves. Celebion held his daughter's hand as they walked through the physical hell, clutching it as tightly as he could. As they walked, Gandalf looked for the opening to slip out of the crowd.

Gandalf saw it and signalled to the others of the tunnel coming up. Dol Guldur was built upon a hill with some natural resources buried into it, hence the slaves for the mining efforts. The trio had slipped into an abandoned mine and followed it till they came to a rotted Dwarven corpse. Gandalf had a look of anger on his face, "These Castellians don't even have the decency to give proper respect for the dead." he growled.

Celebion stared at the headless corpse for a moment, "That's Thrain isn't it." he stated more than asked.

Gandalf let out a haggard sigh, "Yes."

Celebion swallowed and said, "We'll take care of him later, lets get this task done." he hated doing that but the situation demanded pragmatism.

They followed the tunnel till they came to a ledge that overlooked the bailey of the Keep, in it they saw four figures dressed from head to toe in black robes. They also saw Azog the Pale orc with Zimur Shai, and another Yuuzhan Vong dressed in similar crab armor but he also had these strange tendrils slithering from his hands and arms. They also saw another Orc. Celebion recognized him as Gorkil one of the Goblin kings of the many orc tribes in the misty mountains. They also saw a tall figure. He wielded a staff, and he towered over Zimur but met the lead blacked robed figure in terms of height.

They were talking to the figure that Gandalf identified as the Necromancer. He was clad in dark armor and robes, the armor glowed an unholy pale green light of Mogrul sorcery. The effect made him ghostly, and at the moments they thought they could see the inanimate soul beneath sheaved in pale green bones. Indeed, it made them wonder by what power he was tethered to the mortal realm, and how a mere mortal could achieve such power.

"The Dwarves have disappeared into Mirkwood, and are currently with the Elves. We cannot hope to break their defences not now, thanks to the interlopers." the unidentified Vong said.

The Necromancer spoke his voice was a whisper that echoed, full of menace and woe, with an arrogance about it, the arrogance of power, "It matters not, the Dwarves will soon leave the protection of their allies and the castellion of Gundand will claim the prize."

"What of the Jed'dai? Bolg can't hope to take such mighty warriors such as them." Zimur pointed out.

The tall armored figure merely chuckled, "If he can't take such a simple task then he deserves death."

Azog snarled, "Watch your tongue, knife ear! My son is the best warrior ever produced in Gundaband, what have you proven? Nothing. You killed one of your own in the city of Rivendale, and he was injured by one of the Jed'dai. I don't see you racking up a kill count."

The lead robed figure spoke, his voice full of malice and rage, "Enough with your petty squabble, leave the Jed'dai to the Dark Marshal, they will soon feel the wrath of the Ring Wraiths."

Celebions eyes widened as he ducked behind the ledge, "Thats…"

"Wait." Gandalf began, "If he's the Witchking, then who is the Necromancer?

"There is other news." the unidentified Vong continued, "Apparently, The Gray Wizard is no longer traveling with them."

The necromancer turned to the speaker intrigued, "Are you sure?"

"I am certain. He split off from the company with the lead Jed'dai, the Imperial Captain, and the Dunedain."

The Necromancer did nothing for a moment, musing in silent thought. Then they saw it. His shoulders shook as he laughed like the rites of banshee.

"It's been a long time, Olórin." The Necromancer said as he turned to face them on the ledge.

Gandalf's eyes widened in disbelief. "No." just then the trio was thrown off the ledge into the stone courtyard, and Gandalf stared up at the Necromancer as he walked up to him.

Gandalf urged the two to get behind him his staff held up at the ready.

"Gandalf?" Niwen asked.

"Be silent." Gandalf urged, as he glared at the necromancer his eyes full of fear and anger.

The Necromancer came to a stop a good four yards away, "What no words, Olórin?"

Gandalf spat, "Go to the abyss that was prepared for you!"

The Necromancer laughed, "Olórin, you may curse all you want. It will all be in vain." he looked at the two behind him, "tell me, where is this Captain of the skylanders Empire, and the Jed'dai?"

Gandalf glared at him.

"Olórin, do not make this any more difficult than it needs to be. You can speak now, or suffer till I make you talk."

Gandalf's grip on his staff tighten till his knuckles were practically white, "You will have to kill me, Sauron!" the dunedain could only stare at the dark lord in terror, their faces pale.

"Then you have elected the way of pain!" Sauron, the dark lord reborn, shouted to the heavens. His arms shot wide, dark energy hurtling at the like a tidal wave; a mass of pure pitch darkness that carried with the howl of a hurricane! Gandalf held up his staff and a glowing shield protected them from the onslaught, the darkness whipping over the barrier of pure light. A cold sneer passed what remained for the dark lord's lips, and he jutted a hand forth. The energy concentrated into a corkscrew and before either of them could blink, the barrier shattered like glass! The force of the strike struck Gandalf full in the chest and he was sent hurtling backwards across the courtyard.

"How pitiful," the dark lord cooed as he advanced, walking past the terrified dunedain, "once, you were one to rival me. Now look at you. Your years have played harshly upon you, Olórin. Perhaps if you were to shed this charade and tap into your true power, you could defeat me."

Gandalf rose to his feet, and began to speak, his conviction shrouding his pain, "I am a servant of the Secret fire! Wielder of the flame of Arnor! I will not give into you!" he threw a ray of light from his staff. The light hit the dark lord in the chest like a lightning bolt, sending him staggering to a knee before he regained his composure. He rose, though not as proudly as he did before, and jutted a finger at his fellow Maia.

"So it is to be this way? So be it." Sauron snarled and became wreathed in flame as he advanced on him. Gandalf raised his staff again and charged into the dark lord. Their powers clashed in a sudden and thunderous explosion of white and crimson that rocketed to the sky.

Meanwhile outside Viridian turned to Jane, "You think they're okay?"

Ahead, they saw the aftershocks of the clash of the two Maia. Jane turned to his brother, his face grim, "I think there's your answer."

Viridian turned to Jane, "Set off that flare!"

"Sure, let's go forward with that plan." Jane shook his head as he pressed the button on his remote, sending up the flair to the north, "Viridian, I may not be force sensitive but I can feel that. What is it we're up against?".

Viridian gave Jane his most serious face and said with out his face breaking, "The Devil himself."

Back in the courtyard, Sauron and Gandalf saw the flare go up, and the dark lord's arctic smile seeped into his voice, "Ah. that would be the rest of your pitiful band."

"No!" Gandalf shouted, fury etched upon his aged frame. He lashed out at Sauron, swinging wide with his staff and came with it a blast of pure white energy that fizzled with golden limelight. He struck the dark lord once, twice and then a third time, throwing the dark lord across the floor. Sauron in turn rose to a knee and slapped together his hands. First came the mist of darkness so thick it choked the air around Gandalf. Then came the ball of fire! It wrapped around the Maia, hovering him off the ground and surely meant to consume. However, whatever gloating smile of victory Sauron had was dashed away when a repulse of energy as powerful as a sun exploded from the fire and sent the dark lord to the stone ground with a clang.

Gandalf landed on bent knee, panting softly.

"Ha ha," Sauron chuckled as he rose to stand, "impressive, my old friend. But that is the unfortunate thing here, Olórin. You will need more than to be merely impressive."

"I am not finished, slave of Morgoth!" Gandalf snarled as he too rose to meet his adversary, pointing with his staff, "And soon you will be casted back into the pit from which you spawned!"

"I think not, Olórin. For as much as I am subservient to Morgoth, so to are you to your Valar. And my god is far more generous than yours."

With that, he raised his hands skyward, and the clouds above turned foul with black and green. Great arcs of lightning blasted down from the heavens, and Gandalf raised his shield once again. The lightning cracked against the power of his magic, but Sauron was nothing if not patient, and when his adversary waned, he struck. He thrust force a powerful bolt once again to smite down his fellow Maia. Gandalf however would not be caught by the same trick. Indeed, he'd syphoned the energy of the storm and now with an extension of his staff sent it flying at Sauron.

Sauron was struck in mind and body, the electricity coursing through his with such ferocity that the barely corporeal being screamed in pain! "YOU HURT ME!" Sauron bellowed wrathfully, "I WILL SEE YOU BROKEN FOR THAT!"

He thrust his hands forward and directed the lighting to his palm and then out. Soon, it became a duel of power as the two were now tethered in the blinding electricity. Sauron advanced one step after the other until his hands were seperated from Gandalf's head only by the sphere of energy formed in front of his staff. He reached forward, and once more an explosion of great power erupted, the flash as bright as sun going supernova!

At the end, the energy had been directed primarily at Sauron, but it had been enough. Smoke fumed off his armor as his smirked tiredly at his enemy, who lay sprawled on the ground.

"Now you see the difference between you and I," he advanced upon Gandalf, who tried desperately to reach his misbegotten staff, "you are servant… but I am so much more."

Gandalf's staff burned to ash inches from his fingers. Sauron then placed a boot on his chest.

"I gave you the chance to join me willingly." Sauron gloated before he stomped on his chest with his metal boot, causing Gandalf to cry out, "But you had to resist." he stomped again, "and even then you didn't even do it with all you had." another stomp and Gandalf coughed up blood, "Tell me Olórin," another stomp, "Why bother to resist if you are not going to give it your all!" he stomped one final time and Gandalf felt several of his ribs break.

It was then that Viridian and Jane arrived, Azog snarled and attempted to charge the Jedi, only for Viridian to telekinetic throw him to the other side of the courtyard, Zimur grinned and began to advance on the Jedi.

"Hold your place." Sauron ordered, and turned to face the newcomers. He studied the two one clad in the armor forged by the elves, and the other the armor of the Skylanders, he turned his attention to the one who threw Azog across the Courtyard, "So… you are the Jed'dai."

Viridian stared Sauron down, sparing a glance at Gandalf's broken body, and the Dunedain paralyzed with fear, "I see my reputation precedes me. I can't say the same for you."

Sauron chuckled, "So, you have no idea who I am?"

Viridian looked at Gandalf then at the dark lord, and sighed, "Whoever you are, you are more powerful than I could ever hope to match."

"Perhaps." Sauron agreed, "But perhaps not, there are many powers in this world. I could show you. I could teach you the sorcery necessary for you to eliminate your enemies. You can have all you desire. You could have your revenge against the Empire who wronged your people. I could even show you how to save your niece."

That last one really hit Viridian, and he began to walk towards Sauron.

Jane watched him uncertain.

"Vi-ridian." Gandalf coughed, "no."

The air remained tense as Viridian walked up to the mighty dark lord. Viridian was looking down for the moment before he looked up into Sauron's face. Then Viridian snarled, "How dare you!"

"What?"

"How dare you use my niece against me! I don't know who you are and quite frankly I don't care! You just did the one thing I WILL NEVER FORGIVE!" Viridian pulled Ringle and slashed at the gaps in his armor, the sword finding purchase and stabbing into the dark lord, "YOU USED MY FAMILY TO TRY AND TURN ME INTO AN AGENT OF EVIL YOU BASTARD!" Viridian roared as he reared back and with a force enhanced strike slammed into Sauron's torso. The armor gave in a little, denting inward and Sauron was sent staggered back. He clutched the wound with panicked hands.

"The sword of the Noldor king."

Viridian began to attack this dark lord with abandon, not caring what so ever about how powerful he was in comparison to him. He took Ringle by the blade and slammed the pommel into Sauron with several murder strokes, each one causing him to stagger back with each blow. Viridian picked up a boulder and chucked it into the Dark Lord. He caught it with his own form of telekinesis and threw it back at him. Viridian leapt over the boulder and tackled Sauron into the ground. He took Ringle in a half swording technique and jammed it into a joint where the shoulder would be.

Sauron roared in pain and with a clenched fist, smacked Viridian off of him, "I offered you everything you could have asked for!" Sauron snarled, "AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!?" he bellowed. Viridan rose to his feet, a nasty gash across his cheek that soaked with stained blood.

"VESSE IS MY NIECE AND I MADE A PROMISE I WOULD NEVER GIVE INTO THE DARKSIDE! THAT INCLUDES WHAT EVER FOUL MAGICS AND OTHER LIES YOU TRIED TO FEED ME WITH!" Viridian bellowed back as he charged forward to clash with the being.

Sauron was ready this time and he caught the boy by his wrist, picking him up by it and slammed a fist into his armored gut. Viridian felt the wind get knocked out of him as blood spat his clenched teeth, but he launched a force enhanced kick at the groin area of the enemy. Sauron however caught this too, and then casually threw him to the side like a ragdoll.

"You will realize how futile this is boy. I am Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor, the chief lieutenant of Morgoth, the most powerful of the Maia, you are an ant to me."

Viridian stood up and spat blood out of his mouth, "An ant with a nasty sting." Viridian retorted.

"How bold you are, but in the end that boldness will only get you killed." Sauron stated.

"As long as someone is willing to stand against you, you will never claim victory." Viridian proclaimed.

"Noble words and sentiments from one who is about to die." Sauron said dismissively, Viridian was about to charge again when the ground beneath him erupted, sending him flying off his feet and onto his back.

Viridian groaned as he looked up through blurry eyes to see Sauron standing over him with a fireball charged in his hand. Viridian attempted to raise his hand in a feeble attempt to stop the attack when all of a sudden a white armored figure tackled into Sauron and Viridian lost consciousness, slipping into the blissful darkness.

Jane roared with the effort of it as he picked the Dark Lord up a good foot off the ground before throwing him onto his back, and dumping a whole blaster power pack into him.

Sauron after the barrage of fire was over, he laughed. His armor was barely scratched, and he rose to tower over Jane. Sauron stared down at Jane, who stared up at him, waiting for his inevitable death to come crashing down.

Sauron had to admit he found the courage and blind loyalty of the brother to be… amusing. No, not entirely amusing. If it had, he would've batted away this insect here and now. But he hadn't, and wouldn't. After all, he concluded, it would be a waste when the man had potential. A potential that stroked his ambition for a tenth rider at his command.

"What is your name mortal?" Sauron asked.

"Jane Mallory." Jane answered.

"Jane Mallory, I will offer you a deal. I will allow you to take one of your companions out of this place, and three hours after I do, I will send an orc hunting party after you. Should you stem the tide I will allow you to leave completely, but if you fail to keep your chosen companion alive, you must offer yourself to me." Sauron stated.

Jane looked among the group for a moment as he gave thought to the idea. He needed a companion that he could protect and then help him come back and get the others. Gandalf, the most obvious choice, was too injured. He considered the other options. Niwen was the weakest of the group with not much fighting experience. Celebion was the strongest of the group physically, but he knew who Sauron was completely and utterly, and that had let him utterly petrified to the spot. He didn't blame him. If the metaphysical devil of his own home and come to life before him, he doubted he'd fare much better.

Plus he doubted that Celebion would want to leave his daughter here alone. That left his last option, Viridian. The more and more he thought about it the more it made sense. Viridian could heal himself faster than any ordinary humanoid, making himself combat ready in a few hours to a day at most. Plus he was powerful and willing to use the full extent of his powers. Not that Gandalf wasn't willing of course, just that he didn't use them as often as his brother did.

The choice was obvious, "Alright Sauron, I accept your challenge. Three hours to prepare. One to defend."

Sauron nodded.

Jane walked over to Viridian and picked him up into a fireman's carry. He turned to the others and vowed that he would return. With that, he began to run. As soon as he left the fortress, he ran north towards where Viridian said he felt where the mystery jedi was, and where Intel put the any luck he could get there before his three hours were up and meet the orcs with help.

Little did he know though he suspected that Sauron would change the deal, after two hours he sent the orcs and wargs. And they were hungry for flesh.

 **AN: Well I hoped you all enjoyed it, if any of you have any criticism with how I handled Sauron please let me know after all I can only improve if you offer constructive criticism. And with all of that out of the way, I will see you all in the next chapter.**


	38. The Domain of the Dark Lord

**AN: Well this chapter was fun to write special thanks to Jacob for his help.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters**

The Domain of the Dark Lord

As the Mallory brothers fled from his domain, Sauron turned to face the two cowering and shell-shocked Dunedain father and daughter, and cracked a smile from behind his semi-corporeal helm, "Take them to the prisons. Let the woman be reunited with her spawns." he ordered. The Castellans nodded and began to push Celebion and Niwen along.

Sauron looked down at the broken body of Gandalf, his smile growing an inch wider,"As for you, I have something special in mind for you, old friend," with these words, Gandalf was levitated by an unseen hand and tossed into a hanging cage to be seen by all, "It is to display in all its measure, Olórin, that even their greatest of champions cannot stand against the power of Morgoth. That you will not able to protect them." Sauron gloated.

Gandalf let out a haggard breath, fighting back the edges of unconsciousness, "They do not need a champion! The free peoples will continue to oppose you as they have always done! For as you saw, Jane and Viridian, two strangers of the stars, stood up to your power."

"Of which Viridian was promptly crushed beneath my unholy power," he smirked, "such a waste. He could have been the greatest of my champions."

"You will not break him. He would rather die than become your slave."

"Then he shall die."

"And then you will lose all hope of converting Jane! They are brothers. Even you are not so foolish as to believe that after killing Viridian, Jane would willingly follow you."

Sauron chuckled, "Who said anything about willing?"

Gandalf shook his head, the horror evident on his pain ridden face, "You want to turn him into a wraith."

"If it comes down to it." Sauron said, and began to depart. Before he did, he turned his head and said, "You could have had all you ever wanted. You could have been a god."

Gandalf closed his eyes, "We were never meant to be gods."

Sauron turned to him, "Did we not participate in the music that created all things? Are we not the divine architects of it all? You say we were never meant to be gods yet by the definition we are divine in our power. No,Olórin, we are gods in everything but name."

Gandalf looked up at Sauron, "And what, pray tell, are you the god of?"

Sauron squared up to Gandalf, "Order, Olórin. I am the god that will bring order to a chaotic world. To a people who court disorder and mayhem."

Gandalf grabbed the bars of the cage, "Our father valued the free will of all of his creations, Mairon. He valued their ability to choose rather than to serve him. He wanted them to choose him willingly, to be the masters of their own destinies. What you desire is not the motivation of gods, Mairon. Those are the fantasies and delusions of tyrants."

Sauron stared at Gandalf for a moment. He felt… something, when he used his old name. Sauron-the name he still went by, the one he still continued to use, the name that inspired fear, and a potent weapon against the so called free peoples-had been originally intended as the greatest insult to him. In many ways he still hated the name. It was the literal opposite of what his given name meant. Mairon in the tongue of the Elves had meant the Admirable. Sauron meant the Abhorred.

Sauron sneered, "Our father is complicate in all the pain of this creation. He could have corrected Melkor's disharmony, made this world and its beings perfect. He didn't. He allowed them to be flawed. That makes him as guilty as I."

Gandalf shook his head, "You don't understand, do you? He kept their 'flaws' because he valued his creations free will, even Morgoth's! If he were to step in everytime something terrible happened, than he would be a Tyrant! He wants us to find our own path."

"He washed away Numenor."

"Because the Numenoreans under Ar-Pharazôn betrayed him completely. They threw away their last chance of redemption when they decided under your council to invade Aman in a misguided and foolish quest for immortality! Something men were never meant to have."

"Why should they not have it? The elves have it. We have it. So why not them?"

"Spare me your false sympathy, Sauron, it is unbecoming of you." Gandalf groaned, "Our father had another plan for them, something that he alone knows. All we can do is make the most of our lives."

"So what is his grand plan?" Sauron asked.

"We don't know. Not even Mandos knows. You know this."

Sauron snorted, "Of course not, and that's why they are so easy to turn. Worship of Morgoth can grant immortality. What are the empty promises of a god that never cared?"

Gandalf glared at Sauron, "Don't do that, Sauron."

"It is time for a new ritual. Don't worry, the woman will have plenty of time with her spawn. The sacrifice will be done tomorrow."

Gandalf hit the cage and screamed, "NO DON'T!"

Sauron turned to him, "Which one shall I sacrifice? The boy or the girl?"

"YOU COWARD!" Gandalf shouted.

Sauron went still, his eyes alite with flame.

Gandalf saw this and grounded out, "All semblance of the friend I once knew disappeared when he ran to the east because he feared the lords of the utter west. When he ran because he feared punishment of the ones he fought against for millenia. Because his whip holder was defeated?"

Sauron glared at Gandalf, and Gandalf glared right back.

"You know what I will do?" Sauron snarled as he approached the cage and took hold of it his hands actually melting the bars where he grabbed them, "I am going to sacrifice the girl, and I will turn her brother into another one of my instruments. Then I will allow Arthinor to have their mother back as his slave, and the Orcs can have all the fun they want with their grandfather, and you can watch as I have your precious student and his brother hunted down. And turned into wraiths, then I will have the wraith of your student torture you for the rest of eternity."

Gandalf smiled. It was a look that froze Sauron to the spot, and something Gandalf took advantage of.

"Sauron, my old friend… you still possess the same weakness that saw you defeated all those years ago. That saw your finger taken by Isildur," Sauron instinctively clutched the stump of it, "that saw your empires destroyed. Your arrogance, Sauron. Your continued overconfidence of your supposed superiority. Yes, you may have all the powers of gods, but you are as flawed in your mental application as any human. Worse even."

"Strong words from a broken being."

"I have faith, Sauron. Faith in the assurance that the Mallory brothers will succeed. That you will fall. Do you know why this is?"

"And that is?"

"Because you are destined to fail. And that is something you will never change, nor escape. Even with the help of these aliens, because our father called for these Jedi their greatest enemy to stop them, so make your threats, your promises, and watch as they fail."

Sauron scoffed and stormed off, leaving a melted grip print from where he grabbed the bars of the cage, the smoke trailing upwards for a moment. He strode to his lieutenants and turned to Azog, "Get your riders ready send them out as soon as possible."

Zimur turned to Sauron, surprised by this, "My lord?"

Sauron gave Zimur his attention.

"It's only been a half hour, you promised him three hours."

Sauron considered it for a moment, "How long will it take for your riders to get ready?" he drawlled at Azog.

"How many do you want?"

"Enough to overwhelm him."

"An hour and a half to prepare all of them." Azog informed.

"See it done."

"That's still only two hours." Zimur protested.

Sauron ignored him and went to sit down on the throne, "He is heading north, where we have been losing our patrols. If he gets there before we're ready, then he would have nulled the agreement he was only allowed to defend his companion with only himself."

Zimur stayed silent he knew it would be suicide to argue this, 'You never said that.' he thought to himself.

"Vem Carr, you have identified this figure as a Jed'dai, correct?" the Witch King asked.

The other Yuuzhan Vong commander nodded in affirmation, "That is correct. That is all I was able to see before he destroyed my probe. He seems to be a worthy adversary."

"So now you see why I am sending them out early. We cannot afford him the chance to escape to plague us again."

Zimur nodded, his teeth clenched behind his lips. He hated the idea of breaking an oath. It was the staple of the Shai domane much more so than the entirety of the Yuuzhan Vong culture, and that was saying something.

"He will come back." Vem concluded, "He will not leave his people to suffer."

"And that is how we will break him." the Witch Lord stated.

Sauron turned to the Nazgul, "I want one of you to go with the riders, turn them into Wraiths."

"I shall send the knight." the Lord of the Nazgul bowed.

Sauron turned to the dark elf, "Let the wardens know they can resume their… sport."

"As you say."

With that, the group disbanded, with Zimur and Vem walking away together.

"I don't like this." Zimur hissed, "He's going back on his word."

Vem sighed, "I know, it's what I expected of him."

"What?"

"Zimur, unlike you I didn't believe Sauron to be one of our gods. Yes, he is powerful, and yes, I could definitely see that he is more powerful than any known Jed'dai. Even the Emperor of the Galactic Empire could not hope to match him. I can even understand that he is a being beyond mortal comprehension, or even our understanding of comprehension. But... that does not make him one of our gods."

"You think he is an imposter?"

"I think he is a tyrant using us for his own ends, but in many ways we are also benefiting from him."

"And that is?"

"We finally broke past our technological stagnation because of him."

Zimur pursed his lips, "We'll work with him for now, until we figure something out."

(The prisons)

The Castellions were eerie to Celebion. The suits of armor that adorned them was as black as the robes of the nazgul. Celebion wondered who or what was underneath the helmet. Niwen looked terrified, he held her hand tightly as they pushed them past a ring with an orc fighting a human in it. Celebion could tell that the man was of Gondor, of Ithilien if he was correct. The orc he was fighting was as tall as a human and looked strong and vicious. The orc defeated the human, knocking him down with head of his ax, and roared to the heavens with a beastial cry. He then saw Celebion and gave him a toothy grin.

"So this is my next opponent?"

Celebion looked down at the Ithilien Ranger who looked up at him with a pained yet proud expression. Celebion eyes bore into the orc with an icy glare and said, "I look forward to it."

Celebion helped the Ithilien up and were ushered onto their cell.

"Thank you." the Ithilien groaned, massaging the many bruises dotting his body.

"Anything for a kinsmen." Celebion said.

The Castellans opened their door to a cell. They threw the three inside, the ground cold and moist to the touch as water leaked in through the crumbling stonework above. They closed the door behind them with a loud _clang_ , Celebion glaring back at them as they locked it with a key and walked away without another word. Celebion turned back to the cell before them and saw a long room about twenty paces deep and ten paces wide. It was cold, dark, and musky with the smell of decay permeating the air. The air however was also choked by another smell: the stench of fear and desperation.

In the cell there were a dozen prisoners, ranging from children to elderly, humans, dwarves, an elf, and vong.

Niwen looked back to make sure, the guards were gone, when two children a young boy and girl, approached her, they appeared slightly malnourished but were healthy telling Celebion that these children were descendants of Numenor, the boy's hair was dark brown almost black, and his aquamarine eyes while heavy and full of pain were incredibly soft and he seemed to be happy, the girl had blonde hair, much like his own late wife's hair, and her eyes were brown and held the same look, when Niwen determined the guards were not there she got eye level with them and pulled them into a hug.

"Mother," they both whispered so softly only Niwen could hear them. She cried then. Cried for seeing them after so many years, and for the fact it had to be here of all places. She squeezed them so tightly Lillian squeeked a little, and she released them slightly. She took each by their faces, stroking their cheeks. She smiled slightly to them, and then grinned at Ernite, "Have you been taking care of your sister, you little rascal?"

Ernite sniggered, "You know it. I'm a big man now! Fight off all these ugly monsters and make sure she don't eat no ugly food!"

Lillian shoved her twin a little, chuckling, "You big fibber is more like it! You're so thin I could break you like a twig!"

"Say's you!" Ernite laughed, "Least I'm not a little flower waiting to be blown away!"

"Oh why you!" Lillian grappled with her twin, the two of them rolling on the floor and taking turns being on top before the other would knock them down. Niwen laughed at the display, then they heard footsteps echoing in the cobblestone. Quickly, those healthy enough to move did so, and they quickly formed a human shield at the front to block anybody looking in.

Then another person came up and separated them. Niwen looked up to see the face of the Shamed Yuuzhan Vong Shaper, Nagme. She looked better the last time Niwen saw her, though she saw several bruises and other signs of a recent beating.

Celebion looked outside to see a couple of guards walking through the halls, orc guards, by the look of it. When they passed, he looked back into the cell, and stared at the woman Yuuzhan Vong. She looked like a demon to his eyes; her face was covered with tattoos, fearsome features somehow more jagged than her fellows, though he might've attributed to her more recent wounds, as well as other scars that appeared to be much older.

Were it not for what Niwen had told him, he would've killed her in a heartbeat. To this, he suppressed his rage, and settled for something more neutral. Though he still looked sulken like an angry black cat. Niwen looked back at her father, "Are they gone?"

"Yes they are." the female elf said.

Niwen turned to Lilian and Ernite, "There is someone I want you both to meet," she gingerly took their hands and stood up. She turned to Celebion, and they stood behind their mother, their eyes fearful and distrustful as they clung to her leg, "Lillian, Ernite, meet Celebion of the Dunedain, my father, your grandfather."

Celebion got to eye level with them and smiled gingerly at them, "Hello there."

"H-hi." Lillian stuttered.

"Hello, sir." Ernite nodded.

"Sir?" Celebion chuckled, "I see your mother has been teaching you proper manners, my boy."

Ernite visibly flinched, and Celebion drew back a pace. Niwen gently urged them forward, "It's alright, he won't hurt you."

Lillian looked up at her before cautiously stepping out. Ernite came forward as well, and they stared at him for a moment. Celebion kneeled down before them, his hands on his thighs as he smiled beneath his heavy beard. They saw the kindness and longing in his eyes twinkle like a star. But they also saw great pain cloud around it like velvet night itself. It was like a reflection of their own self staring back at them. With this, they came forward and hugged him tightly, and he returned it warmly. Not often did Celebion cry, and certainly not in public. But in this moment, he didn't care, and they came down in great torrents as his heart burst with the affection.

Niwen smiled at this, while a man who laid on his bunk just scoffed and said, "Enjoy your reunion while it lasts before we die."

"We're not going to die, Cassius," the elf told him sternly, eying him somewhat coldly, "You must hold to hope, and you most certainly must not rob it of others."

"What hope?" Cassius growled, "What hope incase you haven't noticed, we're locked away in a fortress with no hope of escape. The enemy himself is here, we're as good as dead."

"Not as much as you think." Niwen said, "in a few days the army of the white council will attack this fortress."

"And Jane and Viridian will not be idle either." Celebion said though a great amount of shame came over his voice when he said those names.

The Elf visibly smiled, "This is good news." she came up to Celebion when he finally released his grandchildren, "You are a Dunedain Ranger, are you not?"

"I am," he replied, sizing up the Elf before him, "and you are, miss?"

"I am Tauriel, Marshall of Mirkwood… well, I was," she shrugged. Celebion nodded. She looked every bit her title. Lean and muscular in an almost precise way. In truth, apart from her cheeks appearing gaunt, she didn't look quite bad despite having been starved. What attracted him most though were her eyes, which blazed with intense fury.

"How did a Marshall of Mirkwood end up being captured and sent here?" Celebion asked. Tauriel looked somewhat pained, though from shame and not offense on the Dunedain's part.

"We were meeting with the men of Lake Town to deliver a message when we were… ambushed," she cursed softly and bit her lip, "I should have seen it coming. I saw the signs, but I was so… arrogant."

That surprised Celebion. Never once did he imagine an Elf to admit that, "Arrogant how?"

"We are… quite feared by the orcs and their goblin elk. Sometimes they flee at the very sight of us. So, I was confident they would sulk and watch, and do no more. I was wrong," she growled, "and now three of my command are dead."

"You were ambushed by the Uruk Hai." Nagme sighed, "They are not as meek as their more common brethren, or as easily intimidated."

"That matters not!" Tauriel seethed, her eyes reflecting her self-hatred, "My mistake cost Mirkwood fine bowmen, and worse, I did not fall with them."

"Do you know why they took you alive?" Celebion asked. Tauriel looked away for a moment, and Vong woman explained dryly.

"Her position, perhaps. Though the information she would possess is… superficial at most. No, I suspect they did so because they found her to be a perfect template."

"Template?" Celebion asked, "You mean like how Jaing was born from a template?"

Nagme rose an eyebrow, "You're familiar with the idea of cloning?"

"Viridian is what you would call a Jed'dai." Celebion explained, "He explained to me the idea behind clones."

"So one of your companions is a Jed'dai." Nagme said, "then we are blessed."

Tauriel sighed, "I hope your right."

"The boy was willing to face Sauron, he will not fail us now." Niwen smiled.

"Still, we cannot afford to bet on it," Tauriel shook her head, "I have heard the most dreadful of rumors. The enemy may be performing a blood sacrifice tomorrow."

"Oh no." Cassius whimpered, "He's going create another Castellian."

"What?" Celebion asked.

"The Castellians are poor souls who've been bound to those suits of armor." the Ithillion explained.

Celebion could only stare at him in horror, "W-what?"

A Dwarf growled, "It's an abomination, that's what it is. Strangely enough though he hasn't done this to any dwarves."

"Because the ritual doesn't work on stubborn folk." Tauriel sighed. "He hasn't done it to any elves either, probably because I am the only elf here."

"So that means…" Celebion turned to look at his grandchildren, who were hugging their mother gingerly again, "it can only be done on those of Man."

Tauriel nodded woefully, "We've already lost many of our company, and I cannot bear the thought of losing more. Especially," her eyes flickered to them, and Celebion nodded.

"Then we must find a way to escape before then," and to this, Tauriel nodded.

"Maybe there is something we can do." the Ithillian said.

Celebion looked at him.

"The new breed of orcs love to test themselves on the prisoners." he began, "and well you are now the strongest and healthiest of us here. Something tells me that the orcs are going to want to test themselves against you soon."

"How does this help us, Alehir?" Tauriel asked

"Perhaps you can put on such a show that it will allow us to escape." the dwarf suggested

"So play to the crowd." Celebion said.

Cassius sighed, "It's not going to work there are too many of us they would kill us before we made it to the door."

"I don't know about you but dying is a lot better than being here." Alehir retorted

"We only need one person to escape and get in contact with our allies." Tauriel said.

"But who?" Nagme asked.

"It's a shame Bilbo isn't here." Niwen sighed, "He'd be perfect for this."

"You don't need Baggins." a voice said from the other end of the cell where a small narrow window was. Celebion and Niwen's eyes widened.

"You!" the Dunedain's said in disbelief. On the other side of the wall, Smeagol smiled.

"Yes, me. Who else would you think, eh?"

"What… is that thing?" Tauriel asked in half horror, half intrigument.

"Someone Viridian met, Smeagol." Niwen said.

"Yes, I came to help the bright one who helped me." Smeagol said.

"It's really… fortunate your here then." Celebion said considering his next words carefully, "Go find Viridian and Jane and tell them that they need to make haste, the dark lord is preparing a blood ritual and someone will die the next day."

"Of course, Uh… who's Jane?"

"That's not important, go find Viridian!" Celebion exclaimed.

"Yesss, yesss. Smeagol will do what bear man says," before Celebion could ring the little createn's neck, Smeagol was gone, "Smeagol will be good, yes."

"I'm not Beorn!" he shouted after him, but Smeagol was already gone. "How does Viridian put up with him?"

"It's truly a mystery." Niwen said shaking her head.

"Mother, who is Jane and Viridian?" Lillian asked.

"That little one is a long story." Niwen began, then she began to tell them the story of how Viridian and Jane came into her life and how brave the brothers were, that they even stood up to Sauron. She paid special attention to the older of the two brothers rather unintentionally, but deep inside she didn't regret doing so. Niwen couldn't deny she and Jane were growing… closer. She could only hope she and her family would live long enough to see where that would take her.

"Guards coming." the Dwarf said, the group watched as a group of orcs came up to the cell. They pointed at Celebion.

"You, 'umie! We'z gonna fight in da ring."

Celebion narrowed his eyes, "Then we'll fight."

 **AN: a couple things, yes Tauriel is the same character introduced in the Hobbit movies, I actually had no problem with her character in the films, just felt she was wasted there to be honest, here I feel she can have an arc, and my partner agrees.**

 **Anyway I will see you all in the next chapter which will be posted up immediately after this one.**


	39. Death Hill

**AN: Well this chapter is a lot of heavy action, and I have to thank Jacob a lot for his help with the battle and dialogue of a certain… enemy.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

Death Hill

Jane ran through the woods, Viridian bouncing up and down on his shoulders as he ran.

"Jane." Viridian groaned weakly, grabbing at his brothers shoulder. Jane stopped running and looked over at Viridian's head with controlled concern, "Please stop jostling for a minute, you're making it hard for me to go into the trance."

"Viridian, if I don't put as much distance between us and that fortress, you won't be able to go into any trance."

"Jane… you have been running for a half hour, in full armor, and carrying a fully armored knight. You can't push yourself too much. You need to conserve your energy for when they come."

"Viridian… I doubt we'll actually get the three hours we were promised."

"'Never trust the silver tongues of tyrants'," Viridian quoted.

"'They often leave a bitter taste'," Jane smirked, "good ol' dad. Either way, we need to get distance… we need to find high ground… and probably some kind of choke point."

"Heh, I don't normally believe in luck, Jane," Viridian chuckled, "but we'll need it in spades to get all three."

"You let me worry about that. Trust me, I had worse back at the Academy. You just rest up, and get yourself back in shape."

"Let me go into the trance and you can go on for as long as you need." Viridian said.

Jane looked around the woods, his helmet sensors picking up every crumble and movement in the darkness. There was nothing there… yet. Jane walked on for a few more minutes, mulling it over, and generally looking for someplace they could defend if it came to it. Eventually, he spotted a high rising mound with trees and some hillside stone formations. It wasn't entirely ideal as it wasn't as high as Jane wanted, and the terrain would work against them if they had to retreat. Still, it was better than being on level ground.

A minute later, he climbed up a twenty foot slope, found a spot that had concealment with foliage and fallen trees, and set his brother down.

"Alright hurry up." Jane urged.

Viridian closed his eyes and called upon the force, the force flowed into him and Viridian went limp a sign that he was in the trance.

"Alright Jane, let's get to that hillside." Jane said to himself as he carried Viridian to the mound ahead. It took him ten or so minutes to climb it, and he admitted it was actually harder with Viridian's limpness acting like a deadfall. Still, he persisted, and eventually made it to the top. It was rounded and somewhat uneven in it's topography, but it had cover and it gave him range. He set his brother down against a rock, and started patrolling the area.

All around him was the same story as the side he'd climbed. Sloped at an angle with trees, stone and foliage. If they had Wargs, it was going to be difficult for them to advance enmass. On top of this, they were not the most subtle of animals, and they'd be able to hear them coming. However, if the orcs or Vong did have some common sense or tactical foresight, they would advance on foot and attempt to sneak up on him. He didn't know how well that would work out for them, or he and his brother.

That thought made him look around again for even higher ground, but there wasn't any. His next thought was to try his radio, but he shook his head. The terrain and distance would work against him, and besides, help was hundreds of miles away. If he had a stronger transmitter, he could do it. But all he had was his own personal comm. Still, it was something he had to try.

"This is Raven calling out to all Imperial frequencies," he began, the static heavy, "I repeat, this is Raven calling out to all Imperial frequencies. This is a Broken Arrow alert. I am stranded with wounded, and require immediate extraction. Over?"

There was more static at first, then a voice. It was distorted and he couldn't make out the words, but he could tell it was there. He figured he was out of range, but they might be able to triangulate his position… whoever it was. At this point, someone with a radio was a better bet than folks without one. He transmitted his coordinates, and then had an idea.

He reached into his back pouch, and removed his Tactical Remote. It was a handheld probe droid, mainly used for recon. Still, it had its own frequency, and he could use it to keep the signal open for someone to follow. He sent it upward, and it went as high up as it could, and started hovering.

With this done, he got to the meat of the matter. He had a small number of explosives, including anti-personnel mines. He couldn't cover every possible corner… but he could force the enemy to them. He removed his daughters lightsaber, and pulled up his comm. connection to the probe. A moment later, a camera feed came online, and he used it to look around the hill. With that to guide him, he activated the lightsaber and started hacking down trees.

The angle was rough every time, but he could afford it so long as they fell in generally the right direction. Minutes passed, and he was able to create a rough barricade of fallen elk and oak around the lip of the hill. Now, he had only four ways up for them to pass through, and these layered in as many explosives as he could. He had no doubt in mind that with a little effort the orcs and Vong could simply climb over the trees. But it would take them longer.

Jane considered his other option for fortification, there wasn't much else he could do, he had placed his explosives, set up the rough barricades and had set up at the summit of the hill. Now all he could do was wait for the doom that would come.

Dol Guldur Arena.

Celebion and Alehir were escorted to a stone ring with a group of orcs surrounding it all of them eyeing the Dunedain Ranger with anticipation.

"I'z be your opponent." one of the orcs growled as he stood in the ring.

Celebion studied the orc, for a moment, "I thought I'd be facing the one that defeated you?" he whispered to the Ithilien ranger.

"Be patient." Alehir whispered back, "he is more interested in studying you for any weaknesses you possess.".

Celebion rose an eyebrow but didn't question it as he stepped into the ring.

One of the orcs counted down and the fight began. The next few seconds were amusing to anyone who was watching. The orc blustered and nashed at the dunedain for several seconds, generally putting on a great big show of strength and with a howl, charged at Celebion like a mad bull. Celebion merely held out his fist, and smashed the orc in its temple as it charged right into his fist. The orc fell to the ground, unmoving and unconscious.

Celebion looked up at the orcs especially the lead one, "Is that your best?"

The lead orc chuckled, "HEHEHEHHE, not by a long shot Ranger."

Another orc howled and charged into the ring; Celebion dodging a swipe and drew away with his hands raised and open. The orc charged again, swinging its fists like clubs. Clumsy as they were, the feral strength in the orcs arms was not something to underestimate, but something to take advantage of. When the orc swung forth, Celebion sidestepped and trapped the arm in his hands. With this, he twisted it sideways, forcing the orc to stagger forward and expose its legs. To this, Celebion kicked it in viciously and the orc fell with its arm torqued upward at an unnatural angle.

With the orc at his mercy, Celebion twisted the arm and dislocated it entirely. The orc cried out in pure, unfiltered pain, and Celebion silenced him with a blow to the head.

Celebion stood up and faced the lead orc again, "I demand an actual champion!"

"Soon, ranger. Soon."

Celebion heard fast foot falls coming in behind him and he spun around; catching a charging orc in the side with a kick and breaking a few of its ribs by the sound of it. Celebion then followed up with a punch to those very same ribs, shattering them further before he KO the screaming orc with a punch to the the head.

"Where is your actual Champion!"

Celebion heard another orc's roar and jumped back as he charged into him. Celebion then grabbed the orc by the neck, slammed a fist into his kidney, kicked the back of his knees, then snapped the creature's neck.

Celebion looked around to see where his next opponent would come from, and thus Celebion fought and either subdued or killed about ten orcs. Their broken bodies soon began to clog the grounds of the ring, and a brief respite had to be called to remove them.

"Da Dok is in."

One of the injured orcs screamed and tried to pull himself away as another orc started working on him with equipment that Celebion would describe as… crude, if you considered a blunt knife and several syringes to be crude. To be fair, crude was too good a description for them.

"What in the name of all good things, is that?" Celebion asked in surprise

"A 'doctor'" Alehir said with disgust, "one of the few things these orcs fear."

"He doesn't seem like much of a doctor."

"The orcs call them pain boys."

"Seems fitting."

It took the pain boy about half an hour to work on the bodies and get them out of the way, Celebion stepped into the ring when it's all said and done, "So… who's next?" and the orcs charged in one by one again to meet the same fate as the ones before the respite.

Death Hill

Jane looked at the display, two hours to go before this hill became a death ground, If Sauron kept his word, Jane heard Viridian groan and shift behind him, Jane turned to see Viridian stretching out.

"Viridian?" he said in surprise as his brother rose from his healing trance, "I didn't think you'd get up so quickly."

Viridian looked up at Jane, and shook his head, "I'm not fully healed yet, but an hour should do enough."

"Viridian, no. You need to get back to your full strength."

"Jane, the way I see it, if you fail I am dead anyway. I'd rather die on my feet then in a healing trance and besides. Besides, I can't let you have all the fun now."

"I don't plan on dying today." Jane said, "And I don't plan on you dying either, lets turn this hill into Falkirk."

Falkirk had been the ancestral fortress home of the Gaela and their small stellar empire during the Sith Wars. The main fortress world had been surrounded by four sister fortress moons: Airth, Elphinstone, Kinneil, and Torwood. Each manned by an army, and each requiring one to breach their mighty defenses.

"Falkirk fell to the Sith," Viridian pointed out.

Jane grinned, "But we aren't fighting sith. Besides, someone heard me on the radio. Just gotta hold out till then."

Viridian nodded. Sure, there was doubt to whether or not there'd actually be help coming, but it was better than nothing.

"Alright, big brother, what you got in mind for our little Falkirk?"

Jane pointed out the positions he'd already made, and the narrow chokepoints he'd established with explosives at the front.

"Didn't have enough, though," he admitted, "probably only last the first wave before they come at us again. If I had my team here, I might've also started making a pungi trench."

"Well, you got me," Viridian smirked, "let's get to work."

The two brothers set out to their tasks: Viridian ripping apart the ground with his telekinetic powers to create four foot wide and three foot deep trench line lines circling the lip of the mound while Jane went about chopping down a few trees to make stakes. The process was long, and Viridian had to rest as the strain started taking a toll on Viridian's body. However, he refused to quit, and threw himself at it with renewed fervor.

As they worked, Jane started singing. He didn't honestly care about stealth at this point considering they were going to be found anyway considering the sounds of their labor. Besides, the trees had a way of muffling it. Viridian smiled. Eight Corellian Workers was always a good shanty.

" _They drank their bitter caffa and laid their brew down,_

" _More time for celebratin', when they reach hell town!_

" _For Duros made a promise, Selonia made the claim,_

" _With my star-road workers, 100 miles a day,_

" _Eight Corellian workers chosen for the day, with the Duros labor, 100 miles a track they'd laid!_

" _From the chill of mornin' till the burnin' sun, racin' to the future with the prize to be won!"_

Jane and Viridian now started inserting large two foot stakes every 3 feet or so into the trenches before then covering them over with large chunks of foliage, singing as they worked:

" _Workers by the hundreds fill the night sky, star-cars fully loaded, awaitin' Corellian hands,_

" _Foreman cries 'Another', the handlers grab the prongs,_

" _Corellian's come a'dancin', singin' to their favorite song,_

" _Eight Corellian workers chosen for the day, with the Duros labor, 100 miles a track they'd laid!_

" _From the chill of mornin' till the burnin' sun, racin' to the future with the prize to be won!"_

With plenty of trees around, Viridian had the idea to use them as lobbing mortar; essentially rolling them or tossing them down line into the enemy if their numbers got to great to handle. To this end, the started chopping trees down like good ol' lumberjacks, Viridian directing the trees over to a small pile to be used later. Throughout the night, their singing rang out proudly as they labored:

" _Five thousand cred was offered; each time a road was laid,_

" _With their backs a'breakin', three thousand times a day,_

" _Names like Antilles, Madine and Solo made up the Corellian crew!_

" _Given four day wages for the hell they'd been through,_

" _No celebratin' glory, nor wealth lay in their end,_

" _Lost out in the night, with all the other folk!"_

The chill of the air grew colder quite suddenly, and they heard howling in the distance.

Viridian turned to Jane, "I will answer the phone."

Jane rose an eyebrow,

"Because you called it." Viridian said dryly.

Jane's helmet connected to his remote, and in the distance it saw the massive horde of orcs and wargs running in their direction, "Viridian… that pun was terrible. But I'll laugh anyway."

"Well, how long before they're upon us?"

Jane did the calculations, "About twenty minutes."

"So… what are your thoughts on Niwen?"

"What?"

"Well, I figured we were going to die anyway-"

"We're not."

"I'm just saying. Besides, who am I going to tell?"

Jane looked crossway at his brother before he sighed, "I don't know to be honest. I mean, I've barely know her for like what? A few weeks?"

"Does it honestly matter?"

"Dunno. Maybe, maybe not. I mean, you knew Kes for most of your life."

"Maybe, but she was my best friend for most of that time."

"It still stands."

"Not really," Viridian shrugged, "if it wasn't for us being on the run all the time, I dunno…"

"What's that supposed to mean?

"We need each other, Jane. After everything we went through, we needed company who'd-"

"Understand what you're both going through?"

Viridian shrugged, "I don't know. All I do know is that I love her, and I'm going to marry her once this is over."

"I thought you said we were probably going to die?" Jane asked with a smile. Viridian smirked.

"I changed my mind."

Jane laughed at that before he sighed, "I think you kind hit it on the head there."

"With what, shared life experiences?"

"Yeah. We're both parents who've lost something and I…" he shook his head, "I want this to be right, Viridian."

"Do you love her?"

"...yes," Jane nodded after a while, "yes, I do. I think I've loved her since we left Rivendell."

With that, Viridian took his older brother by the shoulder and smiled at him, "Then let's get out of this together. You and me. Survive all this, and be with the women we love."

"Sounds good."

"Now all we have to do is work hard to achieve it." Viridian stated.

"Leave most of the fighting to me, don't do anything strenuous." Jane told him.

Viridian turned to Jane, "Then may I have your side arm?"

Jane took his pistol and gave it to him handle first, "You know how to handle this, right?"

"Dad taught me how to use a blaster, I am good." Viridian told him.

"So… eighteen minutes to go, eighteen minutes till they die." Jane said.

"Right." Viridian said.

Dol Guldur

Celebion finished killing another a orc and turned to the lead orc.

"Are you done sending in rabble?" Celebion asked.

The lead orc smiled, "You want a fight? Then let us have one." the orc walked into the ring and stretched, a big smile on his craggy face.

Celebion dropped into his ready stance, his hands held open in front of him. The orc mimicked them, and they began to circle each other like wolves squaring off over a kill.

"I am Tuskar." the orc said, "Tell that to Mandos when you see him."

"We'll see who fate favors." Celebion retorted

"I like you, Ranger. Too bad you killed so many of my fellows." Tuskar snarled as he stepped in and punched Celebion in the ribs. Celebion countered with a right hook to the jaw. The two withdrew and reassess, trading jabs meant more to test than to strike a hit.

"Maybe they wouldn't have died had you actually given me a proper match like you promised." Celebion pointed out as he winced from the blow to his ribs. He breathed in, they weren't broken fortunately, bruised though.

Tuskar opened his mouth and spat out a tooth, and chuckled, "You sons of Numenor truly have earned your reputation."

Celebion narrowed his eyes at the Orc curiously, "I was not aware that orcs studied history."

Tuskar chuckled, "It's a passion of mine, what can I say? Studying the past is surprisingly fun for me."

Celebion found that astonishing: an orc loving the study of history.

"Especially your great heroes. It motivated me to become what I am, a being who could fight toe to toe with those legends. So I have to thank you for that."

"Y-your welcome?"

"Now enough talk, let's fight!" Tuskar exclaimed.

Celebion caught the orcs blow and retaliated with his own. Tuskar tripped Celebion over, the dunedain rolled with the trip and threw Tuskar over his head. Tuskar rolled forward and to his feet, his hands up and ready.

Celebion was facing him.

Tuskar grinned, "I see you are fluent in Palé," referring to Celebion's wrestling style.

"You're not bad yourself." Celebion returned.

"Let's see how your skills with Pugilism is?" Tuskar switched his stance, his feet planted in an armed guard, his hands raised and cupped over his eyes.

Celebion adopted the same stance, Tuskar and Celebion circling each other again. Celebion came in going for the body with a solid left haymaker, Tuskar took the blow and retaliated with a right hook to the body. Celebion countered with a cross right to the body, left to the body, and a right jab to the face.

Tuskar struck a blow to the solar plexus, causing Celebion to back off and cough a bit.

"Keep your guard up." Tuskar abdomished. Celebion found it surprising he heard no mocking it his voice, this orc was a fighter in a sportsmanship like manner. Celebion took a breath and got ready for the next boute.

The cell

Niwen tried to get a good look to see what all the commotion was about before she gave up, she trusted her father would come back, she turned to Nagme and approached her, she sat next to her.

Nagme turned to her and smiled, "Hello Niwen, how are you?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing, what happened to you?" she asked looking at the bruises.

Nagme sighed, "After you were freed, Arthinor wanted to take out his wrath on someone. I made sure that it was me."

Niwen swallowed fearfully, "Are you alright?"

Nagme smirked, "I had worse," she adopted an assuring expresion. "Also he is not here, you don't have to worry about him."

Niwen nodded and sighed with relief.

The fighting ring.

Celibion and Tuskar were pumbeling each other to bloody pulps. Celebion's red, and Tuskar's black, each trading punches to the body, and face. Their boute was going on for several minutes, and both were exhausted and sweaty the crowd was roaring at these titans of martial might as they were approaching and breaking their limits.

Celebion and Tuskar were at the point where it took everything to throw a punch that did anything, and Celebion with one final effort landed a solid right hook across Tuskar's face, and the two fell to the floor at the same time, utterly spent.

The orc and vong crowd went berserk and roared with approval.

Tuskar gasped for air and looked over at Celebion, "That was one hell of a fight."

Celebion could only chuckle in response, "We'll have a rematch someday."

"I'd like that." Tuskar grinned.

With that an orc and Alehir walked into the ring and picked up their fallen brethren and began to escort them back to their residence.

Death hill

Viridian and Jane stood side by side at the summit of the hill as the wargs and their orc riders found them, in typical warg fashion they began to circle the hill in an effort to surround them, Viridian moved so that he was back to back with his brother.

"I am going to say this once!" Jane shouted down at the orcs, "Kriff off and keep your stanging lives, or try to come up this hill and die!"

"HEHEHEHE, yes put up a fight! It makes the meat more juicy."

Viridian sighed, "And here I thought your offer was reasonable."

"You chose wrong orcs!" Jane took aim.

Viridian sensed a dreadful enemy nearby, "Jane… one of the nine is here."

Jane looked among the crowd, "I don't see it." Jane whispered back.

Viridian swallowed, "Just keep an eye out."

Jane nodded, "Will do."

The brothers waited in tense silence as the orcs prepared to charge, Jane flipped the setting of his rifle to full auto, while Viridian's grip on his pistol tightened and he held his saber at the ready.

The Orcs all screamed a loud terrible shout and began to charge the hill, it was then that the show began. They charged up the four choke points, a horde of Wargs and infantry running at all speed in a disorganized battle line up the hill. Then out of the gloom, several logs rolled down in an avalanche, slamming into the lead wargs and crushing them while scattering the rest. The infantry fared better with the wargs being the first contact, allowing them to dive for cover and advance cautiously up the hill at a slowed, yet still fevered pace. However, as good as their own natural night vision was, they could never expect the explosives hidden in the brush.

The mines exploded with tremendous fury, shredding the orcs in front to fine meat or outright incinerating them while the rest were caught with a fine spray of steaming hot shrapnel. Jane and Viridian took advantage of this, and hurled more logs down into the enemy, or sniped at them with blaster fire. The result was the enemy falling over in an avalanche of screaming bodies. However, no sooner than this did another wave of orcs advance of the hill, and they too fell into the next layer of traps: the pungi trenches.

Though the brothers couldn't see the result, Jane could most certainly heard it and Viridian in turn felt it. Still, more orcs pressed through, though scattered and disorganized. They made easy pickings for the two blaster wielding brothers, though they made sure to move locations as to avoid allowing the enemy a location for them all to converge on. As the last orc within the perimeter fell, and the rest retreated, an eerie silence filled the battlefield.

"Well, this is going splendidly," Viridian panted with a chuckle. Jane shook his head.

"That was one wave, little brother, and they know what they're in for... And here they come."

Indeed they did. In the dead of the night, the orcs began their assault. Unlike before, they moved with a slow and steady pace, expecting some kind of trickery to be played before the knife work would begin properly. Indeed, the expected log attack began and though many in the front ranks were brought down, the rest had the time and sense to drop to the ground and let the log roll past them. Jane could see this, and held off Viridian from throwing another one.

"We'll need to let them close the distance. Get in close."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Not really."

A few more screams rang out as a few more orcs fell into the pungi trenchline. Still, it was doing its job, and that job was to remind the wargs down below that coming up here wasn't in their best interests. The infantry the Stormtrooper and Jedi Knight could handle smartly. The warg enmass on the other hand was an entirely different story.

"C'mon, boyz!" an orc shouted, "Deez humie gitz runnin' outta tricks! Let's gut 'em an'-" a bolt to the head was the humans' response. This had the desired effect, and the orcs charged with an ear splitting bellow. The orcs on each side was at a different point of slope, so it afforded the brothers time to engage each side one at a time. They fired into each formation charging up the hill, dropping some, and slowing the rest down. However, they allowed the front attacking formation to advance without harassment, and the moment they crossed the lip, Viridian hurled a log right into their faces.

"Here, catch!" he shouted as the log brought down the entire middle line and leaving only the scattered sides remaining. Now the brothers began dropping them with precise fire, and when the orcs inevitably closed the distance, their lightsabers did the rest. Limbs and body parts flew into the air as the plasma swords did their work.

"Uh oh, here comes more of them!"

Now more logs were being thrown out as two formations managed to get to the flat top, and worse were now sprinting at them. Viridian started hurling logs at them cyclely, and though a great number of the orcs were sent flying or crushed, the rest were able to get in close. Lightsabers and blasters rounds were exchanged, but the orcs were piling on their superior numbers. Twice, Jane took an ax to his armor, and was damn near buried by the burly monsters. Viridian threw out a push to prevent the latter from happening, but that allowed an orc to come up from behind and tackle him to the ground.

The orc slobbered over him, its open maw of wretched death stinking of death as it tried to damn near bite the Jedi's face off, helmet included. As its disgusting drool pooled over the metal, Viridian reached for his lightsaber, and pressed the hilt right into its eye. The blade cleaved straight through, and as he tossed it off of him, another orc was upon him. Quickly, he lurched forward and stabbed it clean through. Then another orc appeared on his left, and he hacked that one in two. Suddenly, two more were on his left.

One leapt forward, and slammed its blade into his armored gauntlet. Though the armor held, the blow was enough to knock his saber out of his hand and another to smash him across the helm with its ax. Dazed, the orcs clambered onto him to try and rend him, however finding his armor to be as stubborn up close and personal. This afforded Jane time to get to him, dodging to and fro attacking orcs with his rifle in one hand, and his sidearm in the other. With a scream, he blasted the two orcs apart to a fine charred mess.

Then an ax struck him full on in the helm, and he dropped to the ground in a heap.

"NO!" Viridian screamed as he called forth both his and his nieces lightsaber, and with blinding speed dissected the orc in two. Two more came screaming at him, and he chopped them up like sushi. Growling like a feral animal through his helm with his sabers held at either side, Viridian stood guard over his brothers body as the orcs circled them. With a groan, Jane rose to his feet with his own weapons raised.

"You okay?" Viridian asked.

"My pride's more hurt than me," Jane chuckled, "I'll be fine. Back to back?"

"Back to back," he acknowledged, and the two of them pressed against each other. The orcs took that as their que to charge them, and the brothers began to defend themselves with ruthlessly proficiency. All around them, the bodies of orcs began to pile high, the ground becoming slippery with their blood. At this point, there were maybe a few dozen orc infantry remaining on the top, and only a dozen of those were still able to fight, and none of them wanted to enter the literal meat grinder.

"What's the matter, you green skin pansies!?" Viridian bellowed, "Getting tired?"

A sudden howl was their answer, and down from the valley, the sound of paw-falls in heavy formation ringed through the air.

"You just had to say it," Jane grumbled as the first of the Warg Riders appeared over the lip of the hill. Viridian grabbed a body of an orc, and hurled it at the rider. The collision was momentary, but it afforded the brothers to drop the warg with a well placed shot to the head. The second warg however was more lucky, and leapt right into the middle of them. Viridian pushed Jane out of way as the warg landed right in front of him, tossing his niece's saber his way. As Jane dispatched the rider with the saber, Viridian chopped the warg in two with Jane coming in to finish the job.

Viridian wasted no time in grabbing the two halves of the warg, and hurling them at the next wave, causing the two wargs to veer left and right around them. Jane kept shooting as they went, dropping one of the riders, and then shooting another warg in the head. It too went left, and Viridian tossed a few more bodies its way. Then before they could even react, a warg the size of a bear was upon them.

"Yer head is goin' right on top of me boss stick, humie!" the rider shouted as he swiped Jane aside to the ground. Worse though was Viridian, however, as the warg struck out and grabbed the armored Jedi with its ridiculously sized maw. It whirled him hither and thither, swinging him all over the place before it sent him flying right into a tree. The crack was audible as he slammed into the oak, the tree splintering in two as he slumped to the ground. He wasn't moving.

"Azog will awarded me fer yer head, Jed'ai!" the rider grinned toothily as he advanced on the limp Viridian before Jane shouted:

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!"

Jane hurled himself right into the rider, tackling him off his mount to then chop off its head with his daughter's saber. The warg whirled on him, but got a saber straight through its open maw. Regaining himself, Jane raced to guard his brother with the orc's head held firm in his hand.

"IS THIS THE BEST YOU CAN DO, HUH!?" Jane shouted as he held the orc's head up for his enemy to see, "YOU COME NEAR MY BROTHER, AND I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! COME AND TRY IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH!"

One of the warg decided it was hard enough and charged them. Jane hurled the head at it, and then drew Viridian's lightsaber. As the warg lunged, he drew back and sliced its head clean from its haunches. As the rider fell forward, he threw it onto the ground and damn near stabbed it in two. Another warg came in while this happened, and Jane dove to the ground to chop off its forward paws before slamming his blades straight through its chest and into its rider.

Jane rose from the carcass, blades held in bloody hands, waiting for more to come. They didn't. They all withdrew to the edge of the flat top, ringing them in.

"Oh no," was all Jane could say. They weren't going to attack him, but they weren't retreating either. They were making sure he couldn't escape. His answer as to why came in the form of the great hell beast that landed right in the midst of the carnage, it's great dragon like mass sprawling all around with an ungodly scream. Jane dropped to the ground in pain, and almost immediately his audio sensors went to work filtering it out. Even then, the pain was splitting, and with gritted teeth Jane stood his ground.

And there disembarking from the beast was the Umbarin Knight, third of the Nine, once the Númenórean King of the Southlands before he had been corrupted by Sauron in the Second Age. Even for a Wraith, he was unnaturally tall and slender, black and blue robes flowing with the wind. His helm was like that of a Mandalorian, silver and velvet in its metalwork with a large metal plume sprawling from its forehead, almost akin to the mane of a lion. The Knight strode to about a dozen paces of Jane, stopping short to stare down at the Stormtrooper.

"Not a step closer!" Jane growled as he gestured his sabers forth, but the Knight didn't even seem to notice. And he heard, as it were, the noise of thunder. The third of nine saying, "I have come and I have seen," and beheld a sword glimmering with death. Jane dropped into a combat stance, and the Knight of Umbar laughed like the hollow of a grave.

"Now that I have come and I have seen, so now I see why I have been summoned forth," slowly, he began to pace to the distance between he and Jane as he continued, "fearful I was of the futility of my task. Of one so low as a mere mortal I have been summoned to… collect."

"Collect?" Jane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You, Jane Mallory, and your Jed'ai brother."

Jane was silent for he had no words. He assumed this demon in the flesh was here to kill him.

"Indeed," the wraith chuckled, "it was your deaths I considered. What are you if not mortal unworthy of my masters attention," then he gestured with his sword to the corpses all around them, "I however was mistaken. And now that I have seen your mettle, I see now why my masters wishes for your lives, and not your deaths."

Lives?

"You will make a fine addition to our ranks… brother."

"We are not brothers!" Jane growled. The Knight of Umbar reached into his cloak and pulled out a dark dagger in his off hand.

"Not yet… but soon, you will be."

And with blade in hand, he advanced on Jane Mallory.

 **AN: So I have to admit this chapter did not turn out at all how I thought it would but man I love it anyway, for example Tuskar essentially wrote himself into existence but I like his character and it does kind of move away from the typical orc who is all "kill kill kill", will he find himself forsaking Sauron? We shall see, for those of you who are wondering the Knight of Umbar is a model/character created by Games Workshop for their Lord of the Rings tabletop wargames, I will be using those Nazgul for this saga, because I like them.**

 **Anyway I will see you all in the next chapter.**


	40. The Divergance

**AN: Well this was an interesting chapter to write, we are introduced to some new characters, a redemption arc is progressing, and the assault of Dol Guldur is upon us, special thanks to Jacob Sailer for his help and editing, and thanks to Magneto for the characters.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

The Divergence

Jane had only faced this type of fear thrice in his life. The first time was when his father was brutally attacked by a criminal that he and his adopted brother Able had to fight off. His father had been crippled and likely would never walk again. This act brought him to join the Planetary Defence Force of his home planet, Alderaan, and work hard to pay for the medical bills along with the shop that his father owned. The second time was when he sent his daughter with Master Cley and Viridian to learn the ways of the force. The third had been facing the raging juggernaut that was Durge.

But that didn't compare to facing the dark lord, and now, facing one of the most powerful warriors on this planet. Jane had studied the records on the Nazgul, so he was aware of the aura of dread the enemy was projecting. That very same aura that was affecting him even now.

Jane parried a blow from the Knight and elbowed into him, pushing the Nazgul back a pace.

The Knight stared at the imperial coldly. Jane had a feeling that the enemy was actually kind of surprised, "It is rare that some among your kind would be so willing to lay a hand on a Nazgul."

"I will do what it takes to win this fight." Jane proclaimed, "And protect my brother."

"Your sentiments and capacity for resistance are admirable, but ultimately futile." the Nazgul rasped, "If you continue to resist you will be punished."

"Back those words up, and see what will happen." Jane retorted.

"You fool." the Nazgul shook his head as if it lamented what was going to happen next, "Why must you fight this? My master has given us many gifts. Gifts he is willing to share with you."

"You truly have forgotten what it was like, didn't you?" Jane asked, "Who were you in your mortal life? Did you have a family that loved you? Did you have something that you would give everything to save?" Jane pointed at Viridian, "He is my brother, one of twenty-four siblings. My family is why I refuse your gifts. My family is why I fight you and your master. I will never sell my soul to your demonic god!"

The Nazgul's grip on his weapons tightened, "Then my hand is forced."

With that the Nazgul screeched into the air, a bone chilling scream that overpowered even Jane's helmet audio compensators. The Nazgul was upon him, and Jane was on the defencive, his sabers meeting the Nazguls steel blades... and not cutting through them. Instead of slicing through them as was typical of a lightsaber meeting most kinds of metal, the plasma was stopped and held by the cold steel of the Nazgul's longsword. Jane knew it had to be steel because the forging pattern in the metalwork looked exactly like every other kind of sword on the planet. It was also highly unlikely it was Beskar or Phyrik considering he probably would've encountered some by now, and it was clearly not Mithril, either.

As he pondered, the Nazgul smiled behind his semi-corporeal helm, "As I said before, Jane Mallory, my master has granted us many gifts," and with this, he thrust forward and sent Jane sprawling back. Quickly, Jane regained his footing and drew his blades out to keep the Nazgul at bay. Janes heart was literally in his throat. The only reason why he hadn't been overrun by this point was because of the near invincible properties the sabers in coordination with his martial training had provided him. Now, the former advantage was gone. Still, he would not give in, not with his brothers life on the line.

To this end, he attempted a thrust with one blade to the chest while he then swiped at the Nazgul's thighs. Deftly, the Nazgul blocked the first, sidestepped the second, and then countered with a thrust of his own. Jane parried and struck back with his blade now aimed for its head. The Nazgul merely sidestepped him again, and swung his blade clockwise which nearly sent Jane toppling to the floor. Jane caught his footing and struck out short of the Nazgul's advancing torso. An overhead cleave however sent the Stormtrooper to his knees.

Jane knew that he was in over his head. The Nazgul had millenia of experience, and was likely predicting every single move he was making. He growled softly as he felt the monster smirk lightly at him. Worse, the Nazgul stepped back aways to allow Jane to get back up on his feet before he promptly knocked him down again.

"Surrender, Jane Mallory. You cannot win."

Jane said nothing because there was nothing to be said. He was right. He couldn't win, at least not the way he was fighting. Jane martial training had always taught him to aim for the opponents body, never the sword itself. However, that was proving futile. So, he settled on a new target: his hand.

Jane struck first with a deft thrust off the Nazgul's centerline, and predictably the Nazgul moved to parry it. Quickly however, Jane withdrew the blade and swung with his second, catching the Nazgul off guard. Then he struck. His saber tagged the Nazgul's hand with a blinding arc of plasma and sparks, and the Wraith of Sauron screamed.

"You… hurt me," he hissed. Jane growled and pressed his advantage. He swung hard and fast, coming at him from every direction, each time aiming again and again at the Wraith's cross guard. If he could disarm him, it would make the rest of this easier. He struck over and over, trying desperately to just that. It was then that he cursed himself. The Nazgul had naturally been toying with him.

As he swung both lightsabers, the Nazgul's longsword caught them in a counter parry and swung them upward. Before Jane could react, he felt an armored knee crash right into his ribs. His body felt crushed, like his internals organs had been in a tin can being pulverized. The breath escaped his lungs in a hot gasp, and a kick to his helm sent him flying right back over the still unconscious body of his brother. As he gasped for breath, the Nazgul advanced on him, and before he could reach for his sabers, his foot came crashing on his outstretched arm.

Jane screamed in pain as he withdrew his arm, the metal plating itself dented inward.

"I offered you a chance," the Nazgul hissed as he struck Jan in the side with a kick before placing his armored boot on his chest, "to join me… willingly. But you have chosen the path of destruction."

"Better destruction than bondage!" Jane growled.

"So says the slave to the master of his fate."

"And how pray tell are you the master of your fate much less anything that isn't a twisted creature?" Jane groaned.

"A twisted creature, Jane Mallory? So are the words of a feeble, fragile form of meat and bone. Mortal, and dispensable. As for I, a servant of powers you have no understanding of, I enjoy the fruits and bounty granted by my status. I am immortal. I am the hand of a god. And soon, I too shall ascended to such deity. And here you are, resisting with all your might a likewise offered gift. What does mortality offer you, Jane Mallory? Save for a life of cold, meaningless pain. Perhaps I will spare you a moment of pity for your reckless defiance before I snuff out your life and grant you your rightful gift. Or, perhaps I shall laugh instead," and to this, the Nazgul laughed a ghoulish mocker as he shouted, "all hail to the Master of the Rings!"

The Nazgul snarled and held up his dagger and prepared to stab it into the storm trooper. Just as he was bringing it down, the Nazgul found he couldn't move the blade anymore. The Nazgul tried to force the blade down, but it wouldn't move

"You would laugh, but allow me to remind you of something, Wraith." a new voice entered the conversation, strong and firm. The orcs and Nazgul turned to see a young man dressed in battle armor black, red and silver in color. Lightsaber hilts hung from his belt, one made Yorik Kul corral, one with the black metal sheen akin to a mace, while the others were bound in leather like the hilts of a sword. He was over six feet tall, his face sharp in appearance almost akin to a hunting hawk, his hair bark in color and his eyes like that of a beautiful morning sky.

His hand was outstretched and holding the Nazgul's arm up with noticeable strain, but his eyes remained focused upon the servant of Sauron. Some of the orcs attempted to charge him but he activated his white saber blade and effortlessly killed the foolish creature. As its body fell lifeless to the ground, he spoke again, his words ringing with conviction,"You may be immortal but you have lost so much more in return. All of that you have lost this man here has shown you in his fight against you."

He began to approach them, speaking as he went, "Mortality allows us the ability to love, to see the beauty of this world, to experience the joys and wonders of being a man. Look at him and you will see no finer example," he gestured with his lightsaber, "he is a man who is willing to fight the impossible for even the slightest chance that his family will live."

The Nazgul fumed inwardly as the Jed'dai's grip on his hand proved to still be stronger than he could budge. The Jed'dai however did not seem notice, and merely continued, "Despite the pain you give him, he has defied you of the curse you wish to place upon him." the man then threw his hand up causing the Nazgul to be sent into the air and away from the brothers. The Nazgul caught himself before he could suffer further indignity, his heels digging a long trench through the ground.

"You lost all that in exchange for your immortality and power. All you have left is a hollow shell that once used to be your soul." he continued as he walked through the orcs, cutting down any that attempted to charge him as he came between the Nazgul and the brothers, "These two do not want what you master has to offer, and have fought against you and your thralls. The people of this world have fought your masters since time immemorial and have held the line against you for an eternity without the gifts of your masters! So, what is your excuse, monster?!"

The Nazgul drew his long sword, and scoffed, "You ask me of excuses, yet I have no need for them. I have witnessed a the lives and deaths of thousands. I have seen kingdoms rise and fall to ash. I have felt the presence of divine power, and its power flows through my veins. What is heroism, Jed'dai, when there is none to sing of it? That will be the fate of all in the end. They merely delay the inevitable," he then pointed his blade at his opponent, "that shall be your fate, as well. It is only a matter of how you wish to end."

"Come then," the Jedi smiled, his lightsaber shining a light brighter than a sun,"and attempt to take my life."

"I shall not attempt, Jed'dai. I shall slay you. I will bear you away to the houses of lamentation beyond all the darkness where your flesh shall be devoured. Your shrived mind will be left bare and naked to the lidless. You will fall, and you will not be remembered."

The Jedi's smile widen into a pursed grin, his eyes beaming with intent as he uttered, "Come and try."

The Nazgul stepped forward to face him. There would be no half hearted toying this time, as he had no intention of taking the Jed'dai alive. Indeed, his blade moved like the wailing winds of a dying mans last day. Swift and utterly unseen, the blade swept for to strike down the mysterious Jedi. However, his own weapon moved like quicksilver, a sheen of pure white that swept away the first blow, then the second, and before the Nazgul could move for a third, the Jedi struck with a swift slash across the middle. It was so fast the Nazgul hadn't realized until his robes began to smoke and combust into flame. Burning like a bonfire, the Wraith screamed in a panic and fled shrieking into the darkness.

The orcs all backed away in true and petrified fear when blaster bolts from the surrounding woods poured into them and the orcs descended into madness. All around them was death and there would be no escaped. Fear gave them wings and many took to flight as fast as their legs would carry them while others charged the Jedi. Their deaths were swift, and even those attempting to escape would find no respite. Many stumbled into the pungi traps that Jane and Viridian dug out while others were shot down in droves. It was not merely a rout; it had become an execution.

The Jedi slew the steed of the Nazgul as it tried lung at him. With one simple thrust, he chopped the creatures head off, and put his sword away when it was all over. he got down to inspect the injuries of Viridian and Jane.

"Y-you got my message." Jane coughed.

"Yes, I did." the Jedi smiled, "I will take you both to my ship and get you patched up."

Viridian groaned and looked up at the mysterious stranger hovering over him and his brother, "Are you, Tau Nyl?" he asked.

"Conserve your strength." the jedi told him, "But yes, I am Tau Nyl."

At this point a group of warriors came up the hill, all of them wearing mandalorian battle armor. A selkath came up to them with a scanner.

"The younger one has more injuries than the older one, but they can be moved safely." the selkath mandalorian stated.

"Thank you, Kota." Tau nodded, he looked at the others, "Help me with them."

With that the group made some stretchers, and they brought the brothers back to their ship. Tau came into the ship, and got on his comms, "Jarael, can you meet us in the medbay, I got some patients that could use some patching up."

" _I'm on my way._ " a feminine voice responded

The group brought them to the very spartan medical bay. Tau pressed a button and the beds slid out of the wall and the warriors placed the brothers on the medical beds just as the ships personal medic came in and began to look over the two brothers.

"An Imperial huh?" she asked looking at Jane.

"Considering who we're fighting it makes sense for the Jedi and the Imperials to fight alongside each other." Tau pointed out, as she began to work.

"Yeah, Sauron is not a joke." Jane said as he held his arm in place as the medic began carefully cut away the armor, "bastard took out our wizard, ranger, and… what would you consider Niwen?"

"A female bard." Viridian winced.

"What?" one of the mandalorians asked.

"You really need to check out some tabletop RPGs." Jane chuckled, "My family could spend days playing those."

"Too bad leveling up in real life is not as easy as it is in those games." Viridian chuckled.

"How would you know that in the temple?" one of the mandalorians asked, a female one this time, though in many ways her question sounded… hostile.

"We have games in the temple. We don't just spend our entire days in meditation or practicing or any of that other boring monk stuff. We do have fun." Viridian pointed out as he gave her a sidelong glance, "Have we met before?" he asked.

"No." she answered simply.

Tau decided to change subjects, "A wizard you say?" he asked.

"Yeah he was the most powerful of our little group, Gandalf the Grey."

"GANDALF?!" a frantic voice exclaimed from outside the medical ward Viridian groaned as he remembered this voice.

"Radagast."

The brown Wizard came into the room, "Is my Cousin, alright?"

Jarael blew a whistle, "Alright all of you, out! I need space to work and you are stressing out my patients. Get get get!" she shooed them

Jane then said, "Hey," Radagast stopped and turned to the trooper, "Your Cousin put up one hell of a fight. He's injured but alive."

Viridian nodded, with that the group left leaving the three in the room, Viridian turned to Jarael, "Ma'am, why does that girl seem to hold me in contempt?" he asked them.

"Lona?" Jarael asked, "She has a lot of mistrust with the o-" she caught herself, "the Jedi Order."

Viridian rose an eyebrow, "May I ask why? I mean aside from the whole Mandalorian and Jedi rivalry. She seems to be working with Tau just fine, so what gives?"

"Lona's younger sister, Shara is force sensitive, and well, needless to say some of the rumors that have come about from your order's… recruitment methods did not make her happy about you."

Jane rose an eyebrow, "That is fair I guess… but that's no excuse to treat my brother like something that came out of the backside of a bantha."

"What rumors?" Viridian asked.

"Well… you know." she began cautiously

"No I don't, please tell me." Viridian retorted.

"Viridian." Jane abdomished.

"You're referring to the 'Baby Ludi' case aren't you?" Viridian deadpanned.

"I can tell this subject angers you a lot." Jarael said a little nervously.

"Angers me?" Viridian asked as he tried to sit up but the pain prevented him from doing so, "Oh you have no idea," he hissed through the pain.

"Viridian, calm down."

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Viridian shouted, causing Jane and the doctor to stare at the young man in shock, "That… stupid piece of propaganda saw some good people hurt because of that." Viridian ranted, "People protested in the streets over this! At one point they even tried to break into the temple! They injured two padawans, teens who had nothing to do with it. The war was on our doorstep and this lie was perpetuated at a turbulent time. It even served to fuel the Knights of Opalka's recruitment against force users in general! They used that as an excuse to hurt and experiment on Xey." Viridian sobbed as he ranted, his voice teetering on the verge of outright breaking.

"Viridian." Jane said as he pulled the young man into a hug, Viridian weeping into his shoulder, "shh, it's alright, I believe you."

Jarael raised an eyebrow.

Jane looked at her, "The news station that reported this was under the Chancellor's payroll at the time, in fact it still is."

"Oh… that makes sense actually." she admitted.

"That d-doesn't mean I don't ag-gree with the other criticisms of the order." Viridian sniffled, "But that **lie** can go to hell." he growled.

Jarael nodded, "I understand. Please lie back and I will treat your injuries."

Viridian did so with a wince, "So," he began as Jarael began to work the straps of his armor, "How did Radagast join you guys?"

Jarael removed the breastplate she turned to Jane, "Help me get the armor off him." she told him. Jane did so, helping him sit Viridian up and stripping away the armor piece by piece. The breast plate came off and so did the chain mail, revealing the sweaty shirt underneath.

Viridian chuckled, "I really need to take a bath at some point."

"I'll say," Jarael quipped, "you can take one after I release you."

Viridian's shirt came off next, revealing his toned muscles underneath and he layed back down. Jarael cleared her throat, "In answer to your question, Radagast came to us, and offered to help us learn the different parts of this world. He also helped us with some orcs and Vong we captured. He has been a great help, even if he does grate on Tau's nerves once in a while."

Viridian chuckled, "I met Radagast once, needless to say he was quite the character. I never thought someone in Gandalf's family would do drugs."

"He talked alot about his cousin," Jarael smiled, "what do you think of him?"

Viridian smiled, "Gandalf is in many ways my mentor. He has helped me come to terms with my hatred, and taught me many valuable lessons." he adopted a determined look, "The least I can do is save him from the dark lord."

"We'll come up with a plan to do that." Jane said

Jarael turned to Jane, and began to prod his arm, "Let me know if it hurts."

"It's not bad, doc, just a bit sore. It could have been worse." Jane said with a wince.

"It's not broken." she told him, "just put some ice on it."

Jane nodded and got some ice.

Jarael turned to Viridian, "Now as for you, you took one hell of a beating. I would rather you stayed out of fighting for at least a week. You can rest up while I run more tests and-"

"Not happening." Viridian retorted, "I can speed up my healing with my trances and meditations but I will be fighting at that abominable fortress in the next three days."

Jarael pursed her lips, "I will ask Tau if he can help you speed that up any more, but I must protest to anything rash."

"Viridian," Jane began, "I know you are concerned but you really should consider taking it easy."

Viridian swallowed, "Jane, I can't leave them there, they're our friends, and well…" he looked over at Jane who had paled as he stared at the floor, "Jane? Are you okay?"

"I love her," Jane whispered after a moment, looking back at his brother. Viridian nodded slowly.

"Niwen?" he asked, and Jane nodded.

"I know we've only known each other for a few weeks. I know that, but…" he sighed, his fingers rubbing at his eyes, "I will not leave her there. Or her father, or her children. But I won't be able to help her if we're both dead. We need to plan this out. The last time we went in there half-cocked, well…" he didn't need to finish.

"We got our shebs handed to us." Viridian winced.

"Language." Jarael abdomished, "Lets get you both all patched up, then you can figure this out with the others."

"Deal."

Jarael continued to test Viridian The boy was fortunate, despite who injured him and how much punishment he received during the fight of death hill, he only had bruised ribs and a few minor fractures. A day in the healing trance combined with some bacta stips would heal him up in no time, which greatly pleased the boy.

Before Viridian could start however, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Jarael said, the hatch slid open and there stood one of the Mandalorians. She looked younger than the others, perhaps the youngest of the group, and Viridian could sense that she was force sensitive, "Shara, what is the matter?" Jarael asked.

'So this is Lona's sister.' Viridian thought to himself. She pointed at the brothers.

"There is some strange creature here looking for you, calls himself Smeagol." she explained.

Viridian's eyes widened and he smiled pleasantly, "Where is he?"

"He's outside."

Viridian winced as he stood up, Jane helped him walk through the YT-1300 freighter they approached the ramp and there stood some feet away was Smeagol with the crew of the ship staring at him with their blasters aimed at him. "Smeagol, I'm happy to see you're still alive! How'd you find us? Where have you been?"

Smeagol pointed to his nose, "We has a great sense of smellsss yess."

"Okay, that explains how." Viridian said a little put off by that odd ability.

"You!" Gollum pointed an accusatory finger at Viridian, the sudden aggressiveness from 'Smeagol' prompted the mandalorians to grip their weapons even tighter.

"Gollum." Viridian said evenly.

"What has it done to ussss?" he snarled.

"Smeagol doesn't need you anymore."

"He chose to come this way instead of follow the nasty thief."

"Then he is well on his way to leaving you behind." Viridian retorted.

Gollum fumed, "NO! You are a nasty, tricksey human who hates Smeagol! Gollum Gollum!"

Viridian walked forward, he turned to the others and said, "Lower your weapons."

"What?" Lonna asked.

Tau turned to them, "Do as he says." they did so reluctantly

Viridian walked forward and got to eye level with him, wincing as he did so, "I don't hate you, Smeagol. I want to save you."

"S-ssave us?" Gollum stammered, his voice dropping from the cruel gutturals of the monster within as Viridian sensed Smeagol trying desperately to break through.

"Yes," Viridian said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I've seen what has become of you. I've seen what evil has done to you. And I want to help you become better if I can."

"W-wwhy?" this time it was Smeagol himself who stammered

"Because… because I've what seen this evil does. I… knew someone like you once. Someone who went so far that he turned on his own family. I nearly succumbed to this evil, it nearly took my soul."

"H-hhow did master not go bad?"

"Because I had people who loved me. Who were there for me when I needed them. You've had no one else before, have you, Smeagol? You've been alone."

"Yes," Smeagol bit his lip, closing his eyes in shame, "we's always been alone."

"Not 'we', Smeagol. You. All your life, Gollum has been telling you what to do, what to think. You don't have to be afraid of him anymore. You don't have to be alone."

"I… I can't-"

"Yes you can. You did it once before. You can do it again."

"Why?" Smeagol looked at him, his eyes filling with tears as he trembled, "Why does master think so?"

"Because I have faith, Smeagol. Faith in you. And you came here, you found me."

"I… came here… I found you."

Viridian did something that completely caught Smeagol and everyone else off guard, he pulled Smeagol into a hug despite the way he smelled.

Smeagol tensed at the sudden contact, and he began to shake, then the tears began to fall. This was the first time in half the millenia since he got the ring that he ever experienced physical affection. At first it frightened him, but he felt no malevolence come from the young Jedi.

Viridian felt the weeping form in his embrace shake and he sent waves of reassurance at Smeagol. "You're not alone anymore, I am here for you."

To this, Smeagol returned the embrace, practically clinging to the Jedi as he cried, "Thank you, master! Thank you!"

"No," Viridian soothed, "I am not your master anymore," he then took the weeping form by the arms and smiled, "I am just Viridian. I'm just your friend."

Smeagol nodded, "Al-alright." he sniffed and cleared his throat, "There isss one other reason I am here."

Viridian nodded and rose an eyebrow.

"The bear man told me that tomorrow the dark one would sssacrifice a prisoner."

Viridian's eyes widened and narrowed at the same time, his fist clenched and his teeth clenched behind his lips he breathed in through his nose and out in anger. He stood up and turned and saw his brother storming off back into the ship.

Tau appeared to be infuriated, as did the other members of the crew, he turned to the eldest mandalorian, "Get ready. We're going to war."

He nodded, "You got it Tau." he whistled, "BUTCH! Get back here."

Just then a strange K-nine creature ran past. At first glance, Viridian gave it no mind, then he gave it a second glance, that turned into a stare. He looked at Tau.

"Why do you have a Tuk'ata hound?" Viridian asked surprised, even moreso when he noticed the normally darkside creature was firmly within the light.

"Does it matter at the moment?" Tau asked.

"I guess not." Viridian stated, "Damn it, why did this have to pop up?!"

Jane came back down all armed and ready to go, "Whatever this sicko's reasoning, he's going to wish he didn't make it."

"We can't go in guns blazing, we nearly died." Viridian said then he remembered, "RADAGAST! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The druggie wizard came down the ramp and gave Butch a rub on the head, "Yes, Viridian?" he asked.

"Do you have your Rhosgobel Rabbits?"

"Well actually they aren't mine."

"ARE THEY STILL WITH YOU!?" Viridian shouted 

"Yes," Radagast said unfazed by Viridian's impatience, "if it's somewhere you need me to go your better off using this to get there." he said pointing at the ship

Viridian looked at Tau, "That's… actually not a bad idea." Viridian said.

"No it isn't, where do we need to go?" Tau asked.

Viridian smirked, "We need to meet the White Council."

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed that, I was hoping for more interplay between these characters but given what's going on they will have to get acquainted later, now for those of you that are wondering the Baby Ludi case… it is a story that was written as a news piece you know like a news article essentially two jedi knights after a natural disaster on Ord Thoden found a force sensitive child and brought her to the temple… needless to say it blew up after a woman claiming to be the girls mother sued them, personally I view it as a piece created by Darth Sidious to create more anti Jedi sentiment against the Jedi, say what you will about the Old Jedi order, I just can't see them abducting children.**

 **Well with that out of the way, I hope to see you all in the next chapter, see ya.**


	41. The Ritual of Blood

**AN: Well here is a new chapter, man its been an exhausting few days anyway, special thanks to Jacob for his help with it.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters.**

The Ritual of Blood

Tauriel was healing Celebion, the ranger was healing surprisingly quickly, she supposed it had to do with the Dunedain peoples blessing of the Valar for their willingness to stand against morgoth in the first age, "You're fortunate, it could have been much worse."

Celebion could tell that she was a little agitated, "My apologies."

"You are one of the few healthy people here, that can actually put up a fight!" she exclaimed, "You nearly jeopardize that by engaging in that stupid sport."

"I put on a show, didn't I?" Celebion said.

"Yes you did… too bad we couldn't exploit it!" she growled in frustration.

Celebion winced at this, "I didn't realize that they wouldn't bring you all out."

"It doesn't matter now." Nagme said waving it away, "We need to have faith that your little friend made it to the Jed'dai and told him of what is to come."

Niwen held her children close to her.

"So we're doomed." the dwarf sighed, "you said that the plan was for the army to attack in a few days right?" he asked Niwen quietly.

Niwen nodded her eyes full of dread.

"So… that's it then?" Alehir asked.

"What could we possibly do?" Cassius asked, "Someone is going to die and then we'll all be killed when the army marches in."

"Don't need to be so down." Ernite muttered.

"There's gotta be something we can do?" Niwen asked desperately.

"The time for action has passed. It is time to deal with the consequences." a voice full of smugness and vindication. Niwen swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and began to shake as she pushed her children behind her.

Celebion snarled and sat up, his fist clenched, "You." he looked up to see the Black Numenorean who ruined his and Niwen's life standing there, gloating, "What do you want despoiler?!"

"That's a new one," he smiled, his poor hygiene becoming apparent again, "I like that title. I think I will add it to my own list."

"Be gone, accursed." Tauriel cursed.

"I think not. I am under the command of the lord Sauron himself, this is his domain. I am permitted to go where I wish," his malicious eyes turned to Niwen and her children, "and I am here for my slave… and my children. We have so much catching up to do, us four. I think I shall enjoy you for the short time I have before the ceremony, my dear Niwen."

"Actually, you're not." another voice came from the hall, this one belonging to Tuskar, he came up and stood across from the man, "I am the Warden of this Prison, and you are not permitted to take any of my prisoners without direct orders from a person of authority. And you are not a person of authority, sorcerer."

"You… DARE!?" The Black Numenorean snapped, and his hands balled with green pools of energy. Before much else could happen, Tuskar moved with a blinding speed and smashed the sorcerer's teeth in and slammed him off the cell door before throwing him down the hallway. As the sorcerer lay bleeding on the floor, he called down to a pair of Orcs coming their way, "Guards… bring him to the ward."

"What happened, boss?" one of the orcs asked picking up the man and began to drag him off.

"Clumsy git, tripped over his own feet." Tuskar grinned. As the Orcs dragged him away, Celebion pressed his face through the bars, his eyes wide. Celebion asked the obvious, and Tuskar smiled slightly at him.

"Because I hate him. I hate what he is and what he stands for. I hate his lack of honor and his unrestrained cruelty. He is a coward, and if I had it my way, I would kill him as such. Especially for what he has done to you and your daughter."

He then checked both ways to ensure they were alone, and walked right up to the cell door. His hand went into his trousers and he began looking for something in his pocket.

"Celebion, you were perhaps my greatest opponent. I have fought many, and none save you has ever been able to fight me to a standstill. It hurt my pride, to be honest, but to know a warrior like you has made the difference, and for that, I will not allow you to go quietly."

Celebion raised an eyebrow, "What are you saying?"

Tuskar held up a weathered iron key and handed it to the Ranger, "I am saying to hide that and use it to free yourself and as many as you can when they take you in chains. I am saying that you must escape, and get as far from here as you can."

"Why don't you just release us?"

"I am the Warden, and only I have the key. My head would be on a chopping block within the hour, or worse I myself would be used for the sacrifice. This way, there is uncertainty."

"Why are you doing this?" Niwen asked, clutching her children tighter.

"Your father fought me to a draw. I can't have a rematch if he's dead."

"Wait… that's it?" Lillian asked, "That's your reason."

"I'm not complaining." The Dwarf said.

"Your best opportunity to strike is during the ceremony." Tuskar said, "Just make your move before they chain the sacrifice down to the Altar."

"Do you know who the Sacrifice is?" Tauriel asked.

Tuskar pursed his lips, and looked at the young ones, "I think the answer is clear."

Celebion's face hardened and he tucked the key into his boot. "Thank you, Tuskar."

"You can thank me by getting out of this place." the orc said, "I must go. Fare you well." with that he left down the hall, his footfalls echoing away on the dim stone.

"So, what's the plan, then?" Cassius asked, and quietly, they went over what they should do. It was not long afterwards that an entourage arrived and the cell door opened.

"It is time," an Orc growled, and the ghostly forms of the Castellans quickly shepherd them out into the hall, and began marching them outside.

The orcs put chains on their arms and began to march them into the a coliseum where in the stands were all kinds of orcs, vong, goblins, and trolls. The center there was a statue of the first dark lord Morgoth. He was the largest figure, with two other figures standing next to him on either side of the table. The one to the right hand of Morgoth was recognized as Sauron in his armor. The one on the left hand was a large, bestial demonic form of stone and fire. This must have been Gothmog, the lord of the Balrogs in the first age; the slayer of Feanor, and the bane of Gondolin before he was killed there, as Celebion remembered from his studies.

Sauron sat in his Loges as he watched the prisoners brought into the arena. The crowd was in a frenzy, baying for blood. Sauron chuckled softly and rose from his seat, spreading his arms wide as the crowd died down. He surveyed them all for long stretching moments before he bellowed across the crowd, the weight of his voice stretch long through the coliseum:

"An age ago, we once stood here. Here in this ruined old remnant of our power. From here we struck across this Middle Earth, and before us, all burned before our wrath! So shall it be again!"

The crowd roared, and he waited for them to calm again.

"We are at the end of an era, my children. The end of elves! Of humans! Of Dwarves! Of all of these insignificant 'free folk' who for too long have stood against us! Who denied us our rightful place as the masters of this world! No longer. For today begins a new era. An era of Orc! Of Goblin! Of Vong! Of all the creatures of Morgoth!"

A loud cheer went out as creatures banged their weapons on shields and armor, shanting Sauron's name, and to this, he could only smile.

"For look upon these wretched squallers!" he pointed with his raised hand to the captive, "Look upon them, and hate for all you are given! Even they're greatest champion is now a guest of our mighty fortress!" to Gandalf he pointed, for away and high from them in his lofty prison, "What is there left for them but to submit to our will?

"Soon, the Pale Orc himself shall end the line of Durin. We shall claim their mountain and its riches and its foundries for ourselves. The Lands of Rohan shall burn! The White City shall crumble into dust! The Mountains of the Dwarves shall be their tombs! Rivendale shall be laid to waste, and their mighty lords shall kneel before my presence! All shall renounce their false deities, and submit to the true Lord of the Stars! All shall cry out the name of Morgoth in terror and dread!

"And when this world is ours, we shall take to the stars! We shall conquer this distant Empire and all its lands, and spread the word of Morgoth to all who live! We shall be the Masters of the Stars, my children! And today, that era begins!"

"SAURON SAURON SAURON!" the crowd screamed.

"This is not good." Tauriel said.

"We're not facing just mindless bands anymore." the dwarf agreed, "They're a bunch of fanatics."

A black Numenorean priest, dressed in black robes, he smelt of incense, came up to the prisoners and said, "All humans step forward." he ordered.

The group looked among each other before the Castellans pushed them up. The priest eyed them up and down as one would a cow. He walked down the group and after he was finished, he pointed to Lillian, "That one shall be the Sacrifice."

"NO!" Niwen screamed before the Castellan grabbed her. Celebion tried to stop them before he got punched in the stomach; he used this opportunity to grab the key from his boot. He unshackled himself and passed it back to Tauriel. Then Celebion took the sword of the Castellan behind him and drove it straight through the priests middle. All were stunned for long seconds at this sudden turn of events, and the prisoners moved quickly. Tauriel leapt at an Orc and drove a high kick to its head, knocking it down and grabbing its dagger and bow. The Dwarf tackled into Castellan, tripping it over and smashing its armored hands and legs with its own battle ax. The humans took on a variety of goblin and orc, and armed themselves with whatever could come to hand.

High above it all, Sauron sat and smiled. He enjoyed this unforeseen turn of events. He prefered to play with things a while before annihilation.

The orcs, and goblins all hooted and jumped into the arena to fight the group, swarming towards the rabble of defiant prisoners. Their piggish eyes bulged with delight, their jaws clenched in anticipation, their fangs like steel as viscous drool oozed down from their disgusting mouths. Many had not yet the chance to kill. Many had eagered and bayed for the day that they would sink their blades into warm bodies. Now, they saw their chance, and threw themselves to the task.

The prisoners however were the easy meat they thought. With a roar, human, dwarf and elf circled together around Niwen and their children. The years, months, weeks and days of torture that these bastards had inflicted upon them grew into a rage so hot it burned like a star. Their faces were drawn in snarls, their eyes slitted as their teeth ground into a hiss. The monstrous barbarians came, and together the tortured drew their blades. The Orcs in comparison to their opponents were disorganized, and came screaming in manageable numbers.

Under Tauriel's strict bellows, the group swung round to cut down the masses coming at them, swinging round again when another came from another direction. Slowly, the bodies began to pile around them. The ground became slick with their blood, appendages scattered around the stone, and the battlefield becoming a growing quagmire. Though one by one the defenders began to fall, the Orcs were still yards ahead in growing casualties. Above it all, Sauron watched in wretched interest.

As much as the free folk and their naive hope had always been an annoyance of the greatest measure to him, their courage was nothing if not respectable. Commendable, even. Ironically, Gandalf's words rang through him, and he begrudgingly accepted the truth behind them. He had been beaten before by these worms times before, and he could see the true reason behind each of those defeats. So few against many, and yet they fought.

Sauron felt a stab of envy. If only Morgoth's own creations were to fight with such fanatical zeal, unafraid of death and fighting despite the countless wounds the enemy were inflicting upon them. Commendable, but pointless. They would fall eventually. It was now only a matter of minutes rather than seconds.

Still, they had more than earned their moments of rest as the remaining Orcs now retreated to the edges of the Coliseum. Sauron's other forces, the Vong and the Trolls all looked at him for an order. Their faces were eager, but the carnage here did give pause to their resolve. Hence why they had not charged in themselves, and were waiting for him to give the order. But Sauron shook his head and stayed his hand of execution. Let them rest a moment before their annihilation; they could not escape, not with his forces numbering in the hundreds holding every avenue out.

He almost regretted his decision when the Ranger mounted the small wall of corpses ringing their position. He panted, his body looking ready to collapse from the number of wounds inflicted on him. He was bloodied, haggard, and yet he stood. He eyed them all with baleful eyes, and then jutted his blade at them. In a voice full of unfiltered hatred so fierce the ground shook and bodies quake, he bellowed at them:

"Is this all you send against us? Is this all you wretched pit-spawns can throw against us? Hundreds of you, terrified of a mere ten? Well, I hope you're as insulted as I am!"

He paced the wall of corpses, his blade held over his shoulder as he gestured with his hand to the field of dead and dying choking the stonework, their blood staining it a permanent crimson.

"This is how you attack us? As beggars and dregs weezing your way on our disgusting frames to throw yourselves on our blades, hmm? We who you have beaten, starved, and left brutalized by your cowardly hand? Yes, I call you that! For that is what you are! You are not warriors! You are not even beings worthy of the life the divine grant us! You are nothing! Nothing but cowardly vermin whose only purpose in life is to die at the hands of the righteous! And look at how well you have done just that!"

He swept his sword all about the sea of the dead. His cold face cracked into a smile. He eyed the Dark Lord himself, and pointed his sword right at him.

"Gandalf was correct, you know. You have attempted to conquer this world and its peoples three times, and each of those three, you have been thrown back! Not by gods! Not by the divine! But by men! By fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who refuse to yield to you! Who stand and fight and die to drive you and your abominations back to the pits who spawned you! And back you go, and back you shall always go! That is your fate, oh Sauron the Terrible! That shall always be your fate, and no manner of feral barbarian and beast you summon shall every change your fate! You are doomed to fail, Sauron! And fail you shall!"

Sauron rose quite suddenly, but did not speak. If he had eyes, they would have narrowed. If he had teeth, they would have bared into a snarl. All he had instead was his incorporeal soul, which blazed to a red as hot as any forge! He raised his hand, and threw forth the dread signal. Now Vong, Troll and Castellans marched forth. Their masses pushed aside the cowed Orc and Goblin, and waded through the stinking piles of putrid death. Slowly, they waded through. Slowly, they encircled the survivors and prepared to destroy them.

Then the skies suddenly turned bright as though the sun had risen early. A great bird of black and fire reigned above them, it's great wings blowing whirlwinds down onto the ground below as its eyes shot forth beams of pure white light illuminating the ground. No, it was not a bird. It was a ship! And from this ship came a torrent of fire as the onboard cannons let loose!

Ranks of the enemy were blasted away by the laser cannons, reduced to char and cinder as the ramp to the vessel opened with a hiss! Men with jetpacks soared out like wrathful angels. Blasters rocked out shots, missiles flew forth and tore the enemy apart with flame and fragmentation; flame projectors burned through the others as they flew and flew above them to reign death unimpeded and uninterrupted! Then three forms descended from above and came crashing down! A man in green armor, a man in black, and another wielding white swords!

With a great tidal wave, they landed into the midst of the vanguard and sent them sprawling far and wide as they erected a small crater from their fall. They drew their blades and began hacking and cleaving back to back, slashing and destroying all who came at them. So quick were these blades of fire that moved in auras and created fogs of energy that eviscerated all who dared touch them. Sauron, however, was not paying attention to them, or any of them. Instead, his mind focused instead on the sudden change in the air. The subtle smell of ozone.

Then, as expected, a great lightning bolt struck the ground a scan twenty feet from him in the midst of the horde, and there stood four of the five White Council. They were shrouded in the fury the electricity, their angelic forms radiant and yet terrifying to see. There stood Saruman, the White Wizard of Isengard; Lord Elrond, Master of Rivendell; Radagast the Brown of Mirkwood, and Galadriel, the Lady of the Light, who now growled in the fury of a goddess:

"You should not have returned, Mairon. Servant of Perdition, the Great Traitor!"

"Ah, I have missed the old names," Sauron laughed as he descended the stairs toward them, "as I have missed you, my fair lady. As I have missed all of you! Truly, this is a grand reunion!"

"A reunion that shall end with you casted back to fires from which you came," Elrond replied coolly.

"I have no intention going back," Sauron replied, "nor shall I. You had your era, Elf. Now, it is my turn."

"I see time has not aged your arrogance, Sauron the Fallen," Saruman smiled.

"You should speak of arrogance, Curumo," Sauron replied, "and I know of why you come-"

"WHERE IS GANDALF!?" Radagast shouted as he pointed at the Dark Lord, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY COUSIN!? IF YOU HAVE HARMED HIM GREATLY, I SHALL KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"

Sauron could only laugh, "You? The Old Toby Mage, kill me? You have an inflated sense of importance. It is going to get you killed. And I shall-"

Suddenly, a beam of energy struck him hard in the chest and sent him flying. He slammed back into the stairwell, the stone smashing around him. As he groaned, Galadriel rose to a stance and shouted to the others:

"Go. Find Mithrandir and get the others out. I shall deal with him."

"My lady," Saruman replied with his hand extended, "perhaps it be better if I stayed to-"

"NO!" suddenly, her face became translucent and ghostly. A faded blue aura appeared through and around her as her voice became the echo of a nightmare, "YOU WILL GO!"

And with that, she unleashed another powerful burst of white light that smashed through a horde of attackers, reducing their flesh to ash and their armor to fall in clatters to the ground.

Sauron stood up and stared the Lady of Light down, "You will PAY!" the hellish flames ignited all around him as he prepared to fight one of his most powerful adversaries.

"Come and try, deceiver!" Galadriel shouted back at him as she became a pure ball of blinding white light that slowly ascended from the ground. She was angelic, a being beyond mortal comprehension as she took flight above Sauron. The Dark Lord however was not to be undone. He exploded in fire as he took off like a thunderbolt, aimed directly at Galadriel. She however waved her hand and threw a scythe of light that smashed into the Dark Lord.

For a moment, he flailed. But quickly, he regained his posture and responded with a torrent of inferno that engulfed in her a ball. She however unleashed an implosion that blew it apart and started sending blades at the Dark Lord in vertical and horizontal arcs. The Dark Lord stood his ground, and took each blow with a shield that shattered the blades like glass. He decided to go on the offensive.

"YOU WILL DIE, SHE-ELF!" Sauron screamed as smashed into her like a flaming comet, sending the pair colliding into the ground with a massive explosion of debris and stone. Sauron burned intensely, smoking like a volcano as he rose from his stone crater. Across from him, Galadriel got to her feet. Though her robes were dusted, her aura remained unwounded. She smiled at him, and laughed mockingly, "You will have to deal better than, Mairon."

"I have only begun to fight," and with that, the stones and bodies around him rose to over his head. The sky began to shower with them around Galadriel, threatening to bury her. However, she met each with blade and shield; shattering some and deflecting others. However, it was merely distraction. Sauron summoned a storm apocalyptic in nature, and lighting so fierce it was blinding! With a _BOOM,_ it struck Galadriel! The world turned bright, the ground shook with fury as the the crater widened and deepened in blackened char.

Galadriel stood, however. Smoking. Now, she hurt, and for that, it made her angrier. Before Sauron could move away, Galadriel drew upon the same storm and began hurling lightning bolts at him! Sauron swatted them away one at a time like insects, sending the bolts flying left and right. However, he did not sense her pulling the stones up from behind them until they smashed into his legs. Another lightning bolt struck him, this time he was in no position to defend himself! He was flattened against the ground, his armor and soul cooked. Galadriel took advantage of this and now drew upon a single, continuous bolt that burned in the Dark Lord and continued to cook him alive!

Sauron began to scream! His own soul was being burned alive, and he felt his life starting to eb.

"You will be casted back into the enternal darkness!" Galadriel shouted as she continued to kill him, "You will never return! I will ensure it!"

Sauron's armored fingers curled into fists. He felt a rage undreamed of as within him, he began to glow a bright orange. With a single feral scream, he exploded in fire that tore away the ground around him and causing it to slip from the mountain in a thunderclap! He floated in air, his body surrounded in the infernos of hell.

"No," he said before he moved like quicksilver. A fist struck Galadriel in the jaw, sending her flying back and crashing into a stone pillar.

"No," he said again, a little louder this time. He struck her again, sending her straight through the pillar, her body tearing along the ground in a long trench.

"No," and he now kicked her hard in the chest, blood bursting from her mouth.

"NO!" he screamed as he lifted her by her neck and slammed her into the ground!

"I!" he struck her over the eye with his baleful fist, "WILL NEVER!" he delivered a hammerfist to her temple, "GO BACK!" he struck her over the cheek and followed with another, "TO THAT!" now he aimed a blow straight for her chest, causing her spasm and convulse even more blood, "PRISON!"

Now he raised both hands in the blow that would end her life. Then a scream unheard of roared out from behind him. It was the Ranger. He tried to move, but somehow his limbs felt frozen in place. He could only watch as the Dunedain slammed into him, tackling him off the elf. Then he felt his helm whirl back as the Ranger slammed his pommel once, twice and then thrice into the side of his temple. Somehow, Sauron was stunned, not so much from the blow if more so at its mere occurrence.

Before he could collect himself, however, Celebion grabbed him by his hips and hoisted him high into the air! A step, then another, and then he was sent flying over the edge with a blood curdling scream ranging high above him as he went tumbling down into the woods below. Celebion watched him fall until he disappeared from sight into the dark woods hundreds if not thousands of feet below him.

"That was for my people, monster," he whispered before he heard Galadriel groan behind him. Immediately, he rushed to her side. She was gravely wounded, her face a mess of blood and mangled hair. She reached up weakly for him, her body struggling to provide her breath through her strained chest. Celebion took her quivering hand and smiled, "Do not fret, m'lady. I shall take care of you."

Carefully and gingerly, he plucked her up into his arms and bellowed at the Jedi, "VIRIDIAN! WE MUST MAKE HASTE AND FLEE THIS DREADFUL PLACE!"

Viridian pulled his blade out of a Vong, and looked at the ranger with the injured elven queen and nodded, "Come on!" just as he bellowed it out, the suit of armor on the altar began to shake. Viridian looked at it; he could sense at least a hundred souls in it, the orcs stopped their attack and looked at this new development.

The armor grew in size to accomodate for the extra souls within. It was the size of a giant about two heads if not more then Celebion. It snarled and screamed as it stood up, the air filling with the sounds of its justling and forming metal plates coming to place. After it finished screaming it turned to Celebion, "We are legion, for we are many."

Viridian sensed the hundreds of souls malliousas intentions for the defenceless ranger and his patient and charged the armored beast, it reacted and met Viridian's blow with its own sword, "You stupid human, we are the combined strength of hundreds."

"Then you shall fall it will just take a hundred times the effort." Viridian said, "So… not much more than separately." Viridian chopped its arm off.

The castellan looked at its arm, bemused, then the arm reattached to the armor with the whine of ghostly green spirits pull it right back into place.

"Huh… Durge all over again." Viridian commented before throwing the animated suit across the arena, "CELEBION! GET ON THE SHIP!"

Sauron leapt back up from the forest, landing back onto the fortress floor with a sizable _boom,_ "You will never escape me."

Galadriel placed a hand on Celebions shoulder and he allowed her to stand, "Melonin, I need your help." she called.

"You have it my lady." Elrond said coming to her side.

"As you say." Saruman stated.

Gandalf and Radagast came as well, the Brown holding the Gray over his shoulder, "You can count on us."

Viridian looked over at Tau and nodded. They came to Gandalf's side.

"If we can't send you to great Abyss, Sauron." Galadriel began, "Then we shall banish you back to Mordor!"

"You can't hope to stop me. I am far too powerful for any of you."

"There was a Jedi master that said this." the figure known as Tau began, "It takes a little bit of light to banish the dark."

The Nazgul, seven of the nine came to their master's side and began to advance on the group. The group concentrated and with a mighty spell, threw it at the great enemy. A rift in reality bent and warped behind them; all of life itself seeming to sink right through a swallowing black hole. The Dark Lord fights against the pull as his own armies are sucked into the hole, the Nazgul disappearing with howling screams.

"No…" he curses as he took another step and then another, "NO!"

Together, the Jedi cup their hands together and sent a blast of the Force straight into Sauron's chest, sending him right into the black hole and sending him flying back to Mordor. With a flash, the portal closed, and the world returned to as it was before that moment.

Saruman turned to Elrond, "Take care of Lady Galadriel, I will deal with Sauon."

"THE ELVEN ARMY HAS BREACHED THE GATE!" an orc shouted.

Elrond turned to Viridian and Tau, "Take your ship and go. There is still a fight here. Tell Thorin I will be there as soon as I can."

Viridian looked over to see the Castellan Legion retreating with a large number of orcs to another location. He turned back to Elrond "Stay safe my lord, we'll stabilize them till you can heal them." with that, he helped Radagast with Gandalf onto Tau's ship, Celebion brought Galadriel onto the ship as well.

 **AN: well I hope you all enjoyed it, onto some other news I am going to be rewriting my other story Soul of the Jedi, mostly because… it's just not up to my current standards anymore, so yeah that and I will continue to edit up the original chapters of this story.**

 **I shall see you all later than may the Force and Iluvatar be with you.**


	42. The Ride down the River

**AN: Hello readers my sincerest apologies for the long wait, it's been a hectic few months, but enough about that you guys are here to read my pathetic attempts of combining two or more universes together, special thanks to Jacob Sailer who helped me with this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: you guys should know what is and isn't mine by now, right?**

The Ride down the River

As it turned out, Thranduil allowed the company to stay for a few more days due to his scouts finding Orcs and Vong in the forest hunting the company as well as one of the nine. Needless to say, Thranduil was not going to let his guest meet such an untimely, gruesome fate. But he also knew that they would have to leave soon.

"How about we ride down the river?" Bilbo suggested.

The Dwarves looked among each other, "That could work. If we use a raft we can get down the river before they could even catch up to us."

"That might work." Thranduil said, "If we had a raft for you."

"What about the wine barrels you send to the Lake Men?" Kes suggested, "With some jury rigging we could fashion some kind of raft."

"Ooh boy," Janus grinned, "I love projects like this."

"Well then if you can make this vessel I shall send you on your way." Thranduil nodded, "If you will excuse me I have other matters to attend to." with that the Elvenking left them to their devices.

Janus rubbed his hands together, and grinned, "Well then let's get started, I have a great design idea."

It took the entirety of the day, to get the materials cut and ready for the barrel raft, the idea was to build a barge house on the Barrel raft to protect from the enemy projectiles turning it into essentially a small floating fort.

The moon's rays shown into the chamber, to reveal the fruits of their labour, the structure sat atop a platform which was nailed to the barrels, the structure itself was a triangular prism of wood with a wood and thatch roof with doors, and peep holes with which they could shoot projectiles and blasters out of at any enemy attacker that made the stupid decision of attacking them.

"What should we name it?" Janus asked the company, drawing sidelong looks from them, "What? We made this, it deserves a name for all the abuse its going to receive." the Carthean prince argued.

"How about we let it earn its name?" Oin suggested.

Janus sighed, "Alright that sounds like a good idea."

"The hour is late, and I am tired. Let us retire tonight. Tomorrow we shall leave." Balin suggested.

The company all agreed with this, and left to their rooms to crawl into their beds. Kes sighed as she began to drift off into sleep, her thoughts drifting to her Fiance. As she sensed the dark storm coming from the southern end of Mirkwood, she prayed for his safety as sleep finally claimed her.

The next morning, the company came to the the little bit of land where the small river exited the Palace. There was their vessel: a wooden platform atop the barrels suspended a good meter off the surface of the water. As the company boarded, Thranduil and Thorin exchanged good byes.

"I bid thee good fortunes in the wars to come, King Under the Mountain," Thranduil said, saluting with the aquila-his fist smacking against his chest-while bowing his head.

"The same to you, King of Mirkwood," Thorin replied, mimicking the salute and stature before adding, "I have not forgotten my people's promise to you, King Thranduil. Upon the recapture of the Mountain, you will receive the return of your people's treasures."

Thranduil's eyes lit up at this, and he suppressed a smile, "Thank you, King Thorin. No doubt when the Orc tide reaches your borders in the future, you will find us a worthy ally."

"Thank you, King. Farewell."

Thorin stepped onto the raft, and the crew pushed off. The current took them quickly, and in a few minutes, they were out of sight of the elves.

"How long till we reach the Lake?" Bilbo asked.

"At this speed." Balin calculated from memory, "A few hours, we'll be there by mid-noon."

"In the meantime, we need to use our ores to keep from hitting the rocks, let's get to it lads." Gloin ordered and stuck out and ore through an opening near him and began to push, several of the other dwarves did the same on both sides and began to heave avoiding the rocks as they went.

For about an hour they rode the current without much issue, the dwarves expertly avoided the rocks and kept the momentum going.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, into the surrounding woods, she moved her head just in time as an arrow shot through the opening and missed her head, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" she bellowed.

Thorin shouted almost immediately afterwards, "Get down, close the openings, and Archers get ready!" the dwarves quickly pulled the ores back and shut the hatches they went out of and got low, with Bilbo, while the Jedi, Jak, and Kili grabbed their bows, blasters, and drew upon the force respectively, and began to return fire.

The Dark Marshal stared down at his prey from a high rising cliff to the east. The wind blew past him as he stirred in the Wraith's stirrup, his black scaled armor echoing softly as his hand traced down from the reigns to the sword at his side. The air passed through the visor of his black helm like a contorted hiss, his eyes watching the passing barge on the river. Watching his prey.

"M'lord?" one of the Orcs asked him softly. The Marshal sent him sprawling with a mere turn of his head, glaring down at him with venomous eyes. He then eyed a single archer to the far right of his camp. The other Orcs nearby were quickly clearing away from him.

"Kill him," he whispered softly, and the Orcs quickly went about the business of hacking him to pieces. The Marshal had counted on precise timing to catch them all while they were still unguarded. Now they were under cover, with weapons ready. The Marshal weighed his options carefully. Part of him wanted to withdraw and strike at another time… but there was no time. It would be only a few hours before they ran into the borders of Lake Town and its patrols. He didn't have the numbers to fight the menfolk in a pitched battle, at least not yet.

No, there was only one chance and this was it. He gestured to Bolg, who paled slightly as the Nazgul's gaze caught him.

"Take a force north at the bend of the river," the Marshal instructed coldly, "we will drive them towards you. Board them. Throw them into the river if you must, but do not allow them to enter the lands of the Menfolk."

He didn't need to spell out what he would do if they failed. Bolg nodded curtly and bellowed to his kin to move out.

Jasmine watched the orcs move outside, "They're trying to cut us off up ahead. Get ready for boarders." she told them.

No sooner than she said this than a volley of arrow and bolt fire came screaming at them from either side of the river banks as the barge crept under the shadow of elevated positions. Those with blasters or bow returned fire, however the Orcs had chosen good firing positions. They had both cover and concealment, and everytime one of the Jedi attempted to stick their head out to launch a Force attack, they'd get a crossbolt for their troubles.

Still, the actual volley was doing little to the armored wood of the barge itself. Realistically, they could just stay inside and wait until they got of range of the Orcs or they ran out of ammo. Janus was the first to point this out, and Ulra frowned.

"I can feel them doing… something."

"Something?" Jak asked as he took a shot at the ridge ahead of them, "What kind of something?"

She creased her eyebrows in concentration, but shook her head, "Something that's requiring a great amount of effort and numbers, up ahead. That's all I can tell you."

"I can tell you what they're doing!" Jasmine shouted from the front of the barge, "They're chopping down the trees ahead!"

"They couldn't possibly be trying to dam the river," Kili replied, "you've seen these trees, right? You couldn't dam anything with these!"

Thorin shook his head, "They're not trying to dam us," he then shouted to everybody around him, "grab onto something! They're going to ram us!"

And he was proven right a few seconds later as one of the nearest trees slammed right into the bow of the barge, jarring them violently and steering them rightwards. Then another log hit them, this time from the starboard and then another from the port side. While the raft was made of sturdier stuff, it was clear that the logs were slowing them down considerably.

"Jasmine, how close are we to the ridge side?" Thorin asked. She shrugged simply.

"Maybe twenty, fifteen feet?"

He nodded and rose to a fighting stance, his weapons at the ready. At this indication, the rest of the Dwarves did the same and the Jedi mimicked them. The Troopers however were still not entirely caught up on situation. Jak pointed up and they collectively made an "Oh," expression. They were well within jumping distance.

"Ulra, are they-"

"They are," she nodded, "but something's strange. They're…"

She looked up, and mouthed, "Oh no."

Suddenly, the raft shook with tremendous violence as the Orcs started dropping logs right onto the roof of the barge itself. One struck followed by another and another, and slowly as the raft bounced up and down in the river, a long cracked started to form at the roof of the log house and kept increasing the more impacts it took. Finally, when it splintered open wide enough for someone to slip their head through, Thorin shouted with pure indignation:

"By Alue, that's enough!"

He rushed right out the log house, standing on the prow of the raft with his sword raised at the ridge as he shouted up at the Orcs: "C'mon down here and fight, you damn cowards! Come and try it with me, you abominable spawns of hell!"

There was a long and noticeable pause that followed Thorin's declaration, where neither a word nor missile was launched. Then, a hulking shadow appeared above them along the ridge line. In broken basic speech, it shouted:

"Fer that, shortie, yer gonna eat yer words!"

Thorin cracked a long smile and made an obscene gesture. The Orc's face contorted into a face somewhere between pure bewilderment and uncontrollable rage. With a long scream, he threw himself from ridgeline with hammer and broadsword in each hand; all with the intent of landing right onto Thorin and murdering him with great vengeance. Unfortunately, he never got the chance.

Thorin took one step back, and when the Orc landed in front of him, he punted him right into the river. Much laughing and screaming was made for this incident. Thorin took this opportunity to shout at the Orcs, "Is that all you have to offer the King under the Mountain."

He was answered by a loud roar. Orcs were appearing everywhere and soon the sun itself seemed to be entirely blotted out by them. Thorin quickly found himself being flooded by bodies as they all started landing in and around the raft itself. Some he was able to just kick right into the river where they would be carried far downstream into the waiting bowstrings of elven bows. More of them however proved to be incredibly stubborn, and for several seconds it seemed he was going to be joining every other had-been and would-be King under the Mountain.

Granted, that didn't take into consideration the small army that swarmed out the moment things got hairy. The Dwarves quickly encircled their king and killed anything that got in front or behind them. The Troopers stayed in the back and laid down covering fire wherever they could. Fortunately, Thorin's challenge had literally any tactical sensibilities the Orcs previous had and instead of shooting at them from their concealed positions, they chose to join the rest of the boys in kamakizing the raft. Because of this, the Jedi were able to freely march out and do what Jedi do best in this kind of situation: smash the Orcs like ragdolls and chop them up like fine cutlery.

The situation quickly proved utterly hopeless for the attackers, even more so than it had been in the first place. The Dark Marshal hadn't counted on the enemy bringing a bloody battle barge and as such hadn't made the logistical planning to bring heavy weapons. His one advantage had been surprise, but the Orcs stupidity had foiled that too. Now the Orcs stupidity was getting them all killed in a massive waste. He didn't bother trying to stop them, instead watching the carnage with growing annoyance. He even went so far as to slam his palm against his helm when the horned Jedi used an Orc as club to smack his brethren about in the most humiliating of manners.

Indeed, the entire situation was utter humiliating, and stupendously sobering. The Marshal considered throwing himself into the fray to salvage the situation but he knew it would be suicidal. Against ordinary beings, he and his beast would be devastating. But he wasn't dealing with ordinary beings. On solid land, he could afford the chance. But on the bobby and unpredictable current, it was asking for disaster to be a kind and mindful fellow.

So, he instead chose to saddle his beast and ride ahead of the river. In a somewhat uncharacteristic move for Nazgul, he had his beast signal Bolg and his warriors ahead at the bend to disengage and retreat. At this point, the Marshal had lost almost all of his fighting force. It would be pure stupidity to waste what little he had. It meant that the enemy would reach Lake Town and enter under its protection. But with a little cunning, cleverness and patience, the Dark Marshal could still salvage the situation.

However, for it to work, he needed a counter for the blasted Jedi and their equally blasted sorcery. Fortunately, that counter wasn't too far away. Unfortunately, they wouldn't get there in time to stop the Jedi from reaching the Menfolk, but they wouldn't have to. He sighed, landing ahead of the retreating Orcs and turned to Bolg.

"Pull your rabble back into the foothills surrounding the Menfolk, we'll need them for the next battle."

"And that is, M'lord?"

"If the company rouses Smaug, and he is stopped, then we shall burn the Lake Men's home for him."

"Um, M'lord?" one of the Orcs in the back piped up, "I thought the Nazgul hated fire."

The Dark Marshal turned to the stupid orc that uttered such trivial information, "The Nazgul will use any and all weapons at our disposal. Terror has its place, and these pitiful menfolk will receive the full ire of my wrath for impeding our hunt."

"Are we getting the Uruks to help deal with the Jed'dai?" Bolg asked.

"They will join us in our revenge."

"We shall burn the lake men in unholy fire!"

The company watched as the orcs retreated,

"They stopped?" Kili asked.

"It looks like it." Niles agreed as he held his weapon at the ready.

"They know it's suicide to engage us right now, without their Uruk-Hai they can't hope to break us." Kes pointed out.

"They'll find a way to attack us and when they do, they will die in the attempt." Allya stated firmly.

"We shall keep an eye out for the next attack." Thorin agreed, "best possible speed to Lake Town!" he ordered.

The Orcs refused to attack again and the group reached the lake itself, it would take them a few minutes to reach the town of man.

 **AN:well I hope you enjoyed that chapter and are looking forward to what is to come in Lake Town, see you all next time.**


	43. The Second Chance

**AN:Man oh man these past few weeks have been interesting, my brother and his wife had their first child, my work got into a twenty five hour week, my good friend and editor Jacob Sailer began working on the audio dramatization of our rewrite for the Force Awakens, you can read it on this site on his page J Sailer, or listen to it on youtube, his chanel is the same way it is a fun read, we're up to chapter three on fanfiction, and have the prolouge up on Youtube there should be another one coming up this weekend as well. Anyway enough shameless plugging, this chapter has a touching reunion, planning and a steamy scene between a certain couple both figuratively and literally.**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my characters, everything else belongs to their respective owners that being Tolkien and Lucas.**

The Second Chance

The arrival at Laketown was an incredible event. The men of the lake greeted the company with open arms and merriment, especially when Thorin introduced himself as the King Under the Mountain. To many among the folks of Laketown who had lived under the unpredictable shadow of Smaug, the return of the Dwarves was seen with almost divine reverence. Though there were just as many who saw the obvious trouble they would bring. A feast was held at the town square. The governor had the company sit with him at his table along with the messengers from Rivendale, as well as Bard, the Captain of the Guard.

Kes, Thorin, the Governor and Bard were discussing plans to kill Smaug the terrible, while the others sat among the other tables, or in the case of Janus, sitting with Iminye talking about other things, while listening to the discussion. Rather sardonically, after long minutes of noting the optimism in the plans of the Dwarves and their allies with patient silence, Bard pointed out the obvious dangers of their rather half-baked plan:

"If I may, oh King of the Mountain, allow me to collect the facts as you have presented them. You propose to take yourself and your band of under thirty are going to march into the mountain to do battle with a dragon, a vindictive fire breathing dragon I may add, who has slumber for 60 years… all in the hope that you are able to vanquish him when armies and mighty fortresses will not. In addition to this, you do not know how exactly to kill him."

Jak cracked a smile at the captain, "Bury him under enough explosives, and he'll go down like anything else."

"While I would appreciate your optimistic appraisal of the situation, you do realize that Smaug, despite being a lesser dragon, is still a demigod?"

"We've fought worse," Kes deadpanned, "and we're still here."

"Fought and lived is not the same as vanquished and won. And that is precisely what you would have to do with Smaug. For if you fail to kill him," his eyes darted around to his home and his many peoples, "we would be the first to feel his vengeance."

"Bard, we are not blind to the dangers presented to us," Balin pointed out rather diplomatically, "and we Dwarves know first hand the desolation Smaug can and has unleashed. For he now resides in our home."

"Which is precisely why he **must** die," Thorin stated resolutely, "for too many years has he robbed and burned. For too many years have we've been forced from our home. And for too many years have you been forced to live under his shadow. It was prophesied we would return, and we have."

"And he hasn't come alone," Janus interrupted, "Bard, you have no doubt heard what we Jedi can do."

"I have, master Jedi," Bard nodded, "it is not your skill or power that I doubt. We of Laketown have heard of you standing against the forces of the Dark, and surviving. That I do not doubt," he then leaned forward, his face grim as stone, "but Smaug is not like any creature you have faced. He is ancient, even by our standards. And in that time, none have come close to killing him."

"Yes, but they didn't have soldiers of the Empire or Jedi for that matter," Jaing cut in, "we possess weaponry your peoples don't, and the Jedi might be considered equivalents to your wizards."

"THE FORCE IS NOT MAGIC!" Ulra growled, but Jak put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"Dear, he ain't saying it is."

She sighed and slumped back into her seat. Jaing shot a look at Jak, and continued, "My point is, we are better prepared and trained than either the Dwarves or yourselves were. And yes, we may not know **how** to kill him but it is recorded that Smaug has been wounded before, is it not?"

Both Lakemen nodded, and to this Niles smiled:

"As the saying goes, 'if it bleeds, we can kill it.'"

"And we aren't going in entirely blind," Janus began but Bilbo cut him off by saying:

"Yes. By sending me in there by my lonesome."

"Bilbo, my friend, you spoiled the punchline I was preparin'," Niles chuckled, "I was about to say, 'Yeah, it's called send in the Hobbit and hope he don't burn badly!'"

"You're hilarious," Bilbo deadpanned, "but he's not wrong-"

"Except for you burning badly," Kes cut in, "we'd be in there in a jiffy if it comes to that."

"Thank you, Kes. As a Hobbit, I can go where most can't. I can choose when and where I wish to be seen. And… from what I understand… Smaug has never met a Hobbit before."

"He's our burglar for a reason," Kili said slapping Bilbo on the shoulder with a grin.

Bard weighed the options, "But what if he gets past all of you?"

"If it makes you feel better," Ulra began, "some of us will stay here and keep Smaug at bay, but if he is stopped, then we can be here to defend the town from the orc war band that's been hunting us."

"He's never gonna get past all of us, we got too many guns." Niles grinned

Ayla sighed, "No, we don't have enough guns."

"Ayla, stop being such a buzzkill and get with the pretty elf already!"

Iminye shot him a look and Niles put his hands up defensively.

"Not you, me bonnyruge! I mean the other pretty elf! The one who's killed demons and got fancy with gods! No wonder you have crush of him, Ayla!"

Alya glared at Niles with a look that practically said, 'they will never find your body.'

"Lass," Niles smirked at her, "you're not the first woman who's gone and tried to kill me, and you certainly won't be the last."

"Can we get back to the topic of the dragon?" Bard deadpanned

"Why no!" Niles laughed imputently, "I would rather continue to rag this lass and have witty one-liners with her… I kidd, of course. Yes, back to the dragon. So sorry to derail this conversation. I'll shut up now."

Before Ayla could make a smug remark, Kes jumped in, "So we have the outlines of a plan, now to decide who's going to the mountain and who's staying here."

"I'll stay here." Du said. Everyone turned to him in amazement. Du, the cocky and competitive Zabrak, was backing out of a fight?

"Guys," Du sighed, "I'm not stupid. Oh sure, I took a spear to the chest and all that. But being tough isn't much help against a dragon who can spit napalm. Besides, my own abilities wouldn't do much good against him. And that goes the same for you, Janus. Manipulating weather won't be much good inside a mountain."

"Fair enough, except I caused a tornado in goblin town."

"So can Smaug," Thorin deadpanned, "and Smaug can fly through any type of Storm with ease."

"Okay I will stay here to defend the town." Janus agreed.

"I will too." Ulra agreed. "Not much point in having a healer in a place where death is a certainty if you mess up." Ulra turned to Kes, "I think that you should stay here too."

"...Why?"

 _Because Viridian would never forgive me if you were to die in there,_ Ulra's voice echoed in her head. Kes frowned and answered back the same way:

 _So I'm supposed to just to stay here while everybody else goes in? What about Jak, then? He's clearly going._

 _Because Jak and I have made peace with that. Because Jak and I have been together long enough on this trip to understand that. But you and Viridian? You may have grown up together, but you haven't been together as lovers. I cannot take away your chance to be with him, nor he with you. Especially…_

 _Ulra, what is it?_

 _Everybody who goes into that mountain might not be coming back. Smaug… I can feel the evil radiating from the very ground itself. It is a darkness I have not felt since… since the Order fell. And I am afraid, Kes. I truly am. I am scared to death of losing Jak. I don't want that for you, do you understand?_

Kes looked at her for a very long moment before she sighed and nodded.

"Well," Du began, "You're not much of a fighter. You're more of an analyst and a code breaker, no offense meant of course."

"That's fair." Kes admitted.

"Well I will go to the mountain," Xey volunteered.

"I will as well." Jasmine agreed.

"Only two Jedi?" Bard asked the company a tone of disappointment in his voice.

"I guess so." Niles said with a shrug, "We're going to have to make due with what we got, unless the girls fiance comes back soon of course."

"Fiance?" Bard asked.

"Um… betrothed?"

The Master of Laketown beamed at this, "Ah, then you shall have your wedding here! We shall have the finest ceremonies, the finest wares, and-"

Kes stopped him before he could continue, "That won't be necessary, sir. Though I thank you. But, if its a wedding you want to do, than marry these two." she grinned pointing at Jak and Ulra.

"How about after Smaug is dead?" Jak said stopping the Master from going on a gushing triad, "after all such a thing deserves to be celebrated properly, not to be done before a battle where death will come to a distracted mind."

"At last the mandalorian is speaking my language, a wedding deserves to be followed by a feast not a battle!" Niles exclaimed rather humorously.

"There won't be a chance for a wedding if we can't kill the dragon," Bard explained patiently, "and it's going to take more than two jedi, four troopers, and a malorian to make me confident enough to bring my men into this fight."

As soon as he said this, there was a sudden roar of distant wind so powerful and alien that everybody bolted from their chairs. The Masters eyes opened so wide that they would pop from his eye sockets with the right push.

"H-hhe is awake! Smaug is awake! He's coming down from the mountain to kill us all! He-"

"Hush, sir, you'll give yourself a heart attack," Ulra smiled up at him, "that is no dragon."

"Then what?"

And there in the few seconds that followed was the town's first really introduction to the mastery of Corellian ship design. Bard stared up at the freighter hovering high above like an angel of legends… and then he looked very crossly at Kes.

"When were you going to tell us that you had a chariot of the gods?"

But Kes wasn't listening. In fact, she wasn't listening to anybody. She was running. Running as far and as fast as her legs could take her. Her heart pounded in her chest, her lungs on the verge of collapse, her brain producing a constant thrum of pulsing blood pushing too hard and fast against her brow.

But she did not care. As the ship set down ahead, she ran. As the ramp fell, she ran. And as a certain blonde man stepped down from bowels of the ship did Kes hurl herself in a flying tackle. She collided with him in a massive clang of metal and before Viridian could so much as catch his breath, Kes lifted him up in a bear hug so fierce it was collapsing his chest.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Kes half squelled, half screamed, "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"I… won't be… for much… longer!" he panted frantically. A sudden look of 'oh' fell across Kes's face as she released him. The moment she did though, Viridian took his revenge by tackling her to the ground. Over and over they rolled, until at last Kes ended up on top of him again.

"I… I…" she began, smiling too much for her to speak, so Viridian did it for her.

"I know," and he reached up and pulled her into a kiss so tender and passionate poets would sing of it for years to come.

They broke off for air after a moment, "So, we won." he smiled, "we saved many prisoners of that foul prison, and saved Lillian and Ernite." as soon as he said that Kes looked up to see the twins looking at them with mixtures of curiosity and childish disgust.

Kes let out a joyous laugh, resisting the urge to scoop them up and snuggle them, "I'm guessing those are the names of Niwen's children?"

Celebion came down the ramp, "You'd be right." he smiled.

"So, you're the lady that this romantic fellow would go on and on about?" Lillian asked Kes with a cheeky smile.

Kes laughed and shot a sly look at Viridian, "So you missed me just as much as I missed you?"

Viridian tucked a bit of hair behind her ear, smiling as his eyes glistened in relief and joy. He sat up and pulled her into his lap and kissed her again before embracing her tightly. An embrace she returned. Then she sensed something odd. Viridian felt like he had witnessed something horrible, and given how she could feel his deep relief it seemed to be ebbing away.

"Hey, I'm alright, nothing bad happened to me. If you don't count the spiders in the forest."

"WHICH WE DON'T!" Du shouted as he came running in laughing, then he saw tears in Viridian's eyes, "Viridian? What's wrong?"

"I-it's not important," Viridian got out with a half laugh-half sob, "Just a bad dream brought on from surviving a near death experience."

Celebion adopted a grim expression, "It's a lot more than that."

"And we agreed to wait till after Smaug was killed to talk about it." Jane reminded. He wore his helmet but one could tell from his body language that he was tense.

"Cap'n!" Niles shouted as the squad and other Jedi showed up. The troops stood at attention when they got next to Du.

Jaing nodded at the Captain, "We're all present and accounted for, sir."

"At ease men." Jane nodded, the relaxed their posture, "So I take it you all have a plan to deal with that relic of the bygone ages?"

"We had a sort of half baked plan, but now that you brought this," Niles considered his next words carefully as he studied the ship, "scrap heap, I'd say that our plan is now ready to come out of the oven and ready to be put into action."

"Hey this ship is one of the best ships in the galaxy," a biased voice said in defence of the ship.

Niles looked the young man over, "Laddie, that is by far the most hyperbolic statement one could make when referring to this flying junkyard." Viridian looked up to see the group had caught up, he stood up with Kes.

"I will explain it all after Smaug is dead I promise." he whispered to her.

Before an argument could erupt between the stranger and the special forces trooper, Viridian cut in, "Allow me to introduce Tau Nyl, Jedi Knight and owner of that flying Junkyard." Viridian chuckled.

"This ship has some of the best equipment money, and a little bit of thievery from pirates, can get. It's got two light turbo lasers, three different droid brains to act as the ship's computer. It has a 0.5 'lightspeed' engine, top of the line shielding, concussion missile launchers, and one of the best crews this beauty could ever hope to have." Tau said very proud of the ship and her crew, everyone except Jane, Viridian, and Celebion gave the ship a look over.

"She's a tough hunk of junk I'll grant ya that, an' that arsenal would do amazin' on this wanna be dinosaur, but I'd rather see it in action before I give it the respect you think it deserves." Niles said after a moment.

"An... acceptable offer." Tau said, just glad that Niles was willing to give his ship a chance to prove itself in battle.

Kes looked at Viridian worry etched on her face due to Viridian's odd behavior and overall relief upon seeing them all, she began to suspect that he had a vision of all their demises.

Kes gave Viridian a reassuring smile that they would be fine. Viridian let out a breath and nodded.

At that point the people of Lake Town came to the landing sight, and Kes turned to Bard, "So what do you say now?"

Bard turned to Viridian, and saw the saber at his hilt as well as the hilts on Tau's belt, he stared at the two for a moment, "Are you both going into the mountain, to face Smaug?" he asked them.

Viridian nodded, "I am most definitely going."

Tau smirked, "I will be there as well, along with some of my best crew men. Some will stay here to help defend your people and my second in command will be flying the ship to keep Smaug contained to the Desolation."

"There is actually another thing. The orc war band that's been hunting you? It's about to be reinforced by a massive host from Dol Guldur." Viridian said.

"WHAT!?" Bard and the Mayor both exclaimed at the same time. While Bard was able to maintain some measure of composure, the Mayor all but shriveled into a red puckered mess teetering on the verge of outright panic. Bard however was beyond merely frightened, surprised or dreadful. Anger seeped into his voice as he growled at the Jedi:

"You are meaning to tell me that the fortress is not only occupied, sending its legions here, and you yourselves fought your way from there and barely survived… but you did not tell us this? Especially when it is our city on the field of this army?"

"Okay, to explain. That fortess is no longer occupied because an army of elves destroyed it. The legions that are coming left just before we got there and we caught a look of them as we past, we did thin their numbers as much as we could before they entrenched themselves." Viridian explained to Bard

"Oh how many legions are coming here?" Bard asked rather annoyed as he pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes.

"At least fifty thousand." Tau answered

"Fifty… thousand," Bard repeated slowly and laborically, "I want to look at this city. This very vulnerable city of wood and timber that sits under the shadow of the mountain and our former city. We cannot survive such a force. Yes, you all may be great warriors and many of you are not of this world. But we cannot survive a pitch battle."

"We need the mountain."

They are turned to stare at the Mayor, who had somehow transformed from the pure crimson shriviledness of his terror to the chalk white of something more.

"What did you say?" Thorin asked.

"I mean no disrespect, King under the Mountain… but we need Erebor. Not just you, or your allies… but every living and free thing for a league around. Bard is correct. Our city cannot survive an assault. But if we were to reclaim Erebor… fortify it…"

"Then we could survive," Tau finished his musings with a grim nod, "let alone win this war."

"Well we're not alone, Thranduil is no doubt coming as well as the Elrond. Granted he is still busy mopping up the last of the garrison at Dol Guldur, but he will come. He has said as much, and I trust him at his word." Viridian said Thorin nodded in agreement and he added, "and I am sure my Kin will come as well when we send word that wyrm is dead."

Bard took stock of the situation and gave it some thought, before he came up with an idea, "If we can kill Smaug, and that is a big if, our people are going to need cover to stop the current orc war band from running them down. I do have an idea to help keep the enemies attention away from our people, but I am going to need some of your help."

The group looked at him, "What do you have in mind?" one of the mandalorians asked as they came down the ramp.

It took them a few hours to debate the plan, adding more to it and deciding who was doing what. At the end of it all, the entire group was confident in the plan and the idea that it would succeed, and all the contingencies they layered on top of it, after it was all over the company decided to get some rest.

With this, the meeting and by extension the feast was called to adjourn. At this point, Viridian was especially bone tired and it had taken Kes' persistence to keep him from nodding off. He was especially glad of the fact that everybody had moved past him and had taken him with them in their meandering march. Viridian hadn't much of an idea of where exactly to bed down, but when he saw Tau's ship, he figured it would be as good a place as any.

Before he could get more than two feet towards that general direction, he felt armored hands slip over his shoulders and pull him about. If he hadn't been so damn tired, he would've grin wildly down at Kes who practically beamed mischievously at him.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked him. He pointed over his shoulder, and she tutted him, "No you're not."

"Is it suddenly a crime for me to sleep, Kes?"

"It is when you smell that bad."

Viridian had to resist the urge to check Kes' accusation, instead simply retorting, "It's not **that** bad."

She raised an eyebrow and a bemused grin. He sighed, "Fine," and she started pulling him along the wooden workway. So tired was he that she was effortlessly and comically yanking him about that he nearly tripped half a dozen times. Viridian was just glad there were no gossipers about. He didn't need anymore bards written about him.

A few minutes later, Kes finally tracked down a public bathhouse, which thankful was devoid of any occupants. They found a room, shut the door, and Kes was undressing Viridian with a speed unbecoming for even a Jedi. This included his plate armor, chainmail, padding, and clothes.

"Um… Kes?" he stopped her short of taking off his undergarments, "I thought we agreed on-"

"Did you think about that back at Mirkwood?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Were you?" he grinned back, and she shrugged.

"I can't exactly bathe you if you're still wearing clothes."

Viridian didn't even bother questioning **her** bathing him. He looked at nothing in particular for a long moment and begrudgingly nodded. The sudden cold that bit him wasn't exactly helping with his sudden embarrassment of the situation, even worse when Kes turned her back on him. She started working on her own armor, but was doing it with such deliberate slowness that she might as well had asked him to undress her.

He at first didn't give her the satisfaction. He leaned against a wall with his arms crossed and a smile glued to his face as he watched her strip away her armor. Then she turned, grin and moved even slower. Her grin turned to a smile when he snorted, "Tease."

It took him longer to undress her than it had for her to undress him, but he worked through it well enough. Hours of practice with his own suit had turned the undressing process almost into second nature. He stopped when she was left with only her bra and undergarments.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked almost coyly.

"Do you really need to ask that?"

"Well," she turned around to face him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, "it wouldn't exactly be fair, would it?"

"You love making things difficult."

"Half the fun, dear," and her smile made his heart skip a beat or two. A sigh later and the fabric fell to the floor with the whisper of movements. Thankfully for his vow of premarital celibacy, she didn't stand there long enough for her to admire her. She was gone for a moment as steam and water filled through the room. The feeling at first was unbearably hot, but after a few minutes it became rather refreshing for him. It almost felt as though the thick caked layer of filth and sweat on him was washing away by his sweats work alone.

So, he sat in the most comfortable spot he could find and relaxed for a moment before Kes came back in with a bucket and sponge. Rather conveniently, it was large enough to cover her more… sensitive spots.

"I see you're serious about washing me," Viridian noted with a chuckle.

"Have you ever known me not to do what I say I'll do?" she asked as she sat behind him and began applying the sponge to his back. The water was cold and a stark contrast to the steam around them, but he settled into it by the fourth stroke.

"Nah," he replied, "I guess not."

Kes took up a humming tune as she went to work on his tall, muscular and scarred frame. She visibly winced at the new additions, and so did he as she carefully applied the sponge to the areas. But he had felt far worse pains, and he would never be reduced to a blubbering child in front of his love.

"All this from a Nazgul?" she asked rather morbidly. He shrugged.

"Try the King of them… plus a lot of orcs and one really oversized dog."

"You faced the Witch King himself?"

Viridian went still, "That's not who I meant."

She froze like a statue. He could feel her heart literally stopping as her eyes went wide. Her reply came out as a stutter, "Y-yyou f-ffaced… him?"

Viridian nodded, and she slugged him hard in the shoulder.

"OW! What was that for?"

"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!"

He whirled around to face her, ready with a bitter retort. But that retort died the moment he saw her terrified, panic-stricken face. He thought he had know fear before then. He was wrong. In her he saw true fear. A fear he could only imagine feeling when he carried Vesse's crippled body in his arms, and in this he felt the cold dagger of guilt in his stomach. He saw not her face there, but another Kes. The same look, the same… he stopped himself before he could go further. All he could do was droop his face and nod.

"I know."

Her tender fingers touched his cheek, caressing it. He clutched them with his hand, staring into her eyes for such a while he thought he would drown in the amethyst pools there.

"Viridian… I… I don't want to lose you. I've lost too many others… I don't want to ever lose you."

He didn't answer.

"You shouldn't have faced him. He… would have killed you."

He still didn't answer.

"Viridian," her hands wrapped around his ear and the back of his head, "what's wrong?"

He looked into her eyes again, and it took all he had not to break apart at the seams. To fall into her arms and cry his soul away. He turned away and muttered, "Nothing's wrong."

"No," she shook her head at him, "please don't do this. Don't push me away. Let me in."

"I can't," he turned back to her, and now tears started to pool at the corners of his eyes. Now there was nothing more he could do to stop what came next. He fell into her arms. He did cry out his soul in a trembling, shaken mess as all the feelings and terror he locked away came pouring out through his tortured body.

"Shh," she soothed as his face rested upon her chest, her fingers carressing his hair, "it's okay."

"No it's not, Kes," he moaned softly, "I… I shouldn't do this to us. To you."

"This?" she asked, confused.

"Running off. Leaving you alone."

"You had your reasons, Viridian. As did I. We both agreed on this."

"Then we're both stupid."

"Viridian… what did you see?"

"See?" he asked. She shook her head once and then sighed.

"I saw me. Before this, I saw you looking at me in your mind."

He froze for a moment, going still like prey to a predator before he rose from her bussom to look her hard in her face.

"Is it me you're worried about?" she asked him. He nodded.

"Does something happen to me?"

He nodded.

"Is it going to happen?"

He didn't nod. He just stared at her for a long moment before he sighed, "Promise me something, Kes," he said.

"What?"

"Don't tell anybody else what I'm about to say, not till… after everything's calmed down."

"Okay," she nodded, "I promise."

He nodded. It took him a minute to begin, to collect his thoughts, decide what to say and what not to say. But in the end, it began with a statement.

"I saw the future."

He let the words hang in the air before he continued, "Our future. What could have been and what might have been."

"This was in your dreams?"

"Yes… but it was more than just a dream, Kes. It was real. It was very real."

Kes nodded, "Did I… die?"

"Yes. Everyone did."

"How did I…" she didn't finish. Viridian gulped and answered, and that answer shook them both. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't, and Viridian wished beyond all things to join her in that disbelief. But it was truth.

As a Wraith, as one of the Nazgul, he and Jane would have been the mere puppets to the will of Sauron. Their memories would have been there, but there souls would not. Their bodies no longer theirs, their actions no longer theirs. They would have killed all who stood in their way. All. And Kes would have been saved for last.

"Show me," Kes demanded. Viridian wanted to refuse, but her eyes told him argument wasn't on the table. He sighed, and let her mind join his as he replayed the vision. Beginning with the events on Death Hill with one exception: Tau never arrived to stop The Knight of Umbar from performing his wicked work. They saw their transformation, their deeds, their friends dying one by one by their blades. Then Kes felt the cold hands of death taking hold of her as the Wraith of Viridian lifted her by her throat into the air.

Her feet dangled a foot off the ground. She pleaded. She begged, but the cold finger continued to squeeze. Then as the darkness took her, so did the vision end. Viridian face turned as white as a death sheet, his skin wrapping around his bones like the haggered remains of the long dead.

"Viridian…" she began, but before she could say another word he grabbed her in an embrace. He hugged her as though he would be his last. She understood completely. She returned the hug, and his renewed tears were joined by hers. Together, they sat and cried. Cold and naked to the world like babes to the wild.

"H-hhe wanted to make me suffer," he stuttered so softly even she had trouble hearing him, "f-ffor refusing to join him. For resisting his call to power, for refusing the ability to resurrect Vesse. He wanted to make me suffer for hurting his sense of pride."

For the first time in so many years, Kes felt anger. She felt rage. She wanted to hurt Sauron. She wanted to hurt them all, and in that moment of destructive compilation, she hadn't even realized she was squeezing her love. She released him and tried to apologize, but he hushed her as he softly and gingerly brushed away her hair from her eyes. Moving to her ear, brushing them behind it.

"I know."

It happen without thought. It didn't need to. They closed with each other; a kiss of a more desperate passionate than the one before. For this was not merely a kiss of relief, but of morbid realization. Death is neither kind nor fair, and they saw an end averted by exactly one change. And in the face of this, they grew all the closer.

They broke away with the exhaust of warm breath and turbulent emotions far more akin to the bass of a raging hurricane at the toll of midnight.

"Kes…"

"Viridian…"

He swallowed. She shuddered, and they embraced once more. Her head in his shoulder, his in hers.

"I love you," they both said in their own ways, in both words, expression and thought.

"I will never leave you again," Viridian whispered softly.

"Then I am coming with you to that mountain," Kes whispered back.

"The two of us vs that relic?" he chuckled.

"The relic stands no chance." she added with a laugh, "And after?"

His sigh turned into a tired smile, "Then I'm marrying you. No if's and's or but's. I am marrying you. Even if it has to be right in front of the dragon's corpse."

"That sounds strangely romantic. But I agree," a kiss followed, and as they stared into the others soul, she whispered, "Viridian Mallory, I will marry you. I will live a happy life with you. We will grow old together, and into whatever comes after."

"Promise?" he asked with a half hearted smirk.

"Promise," and it was sealed with a third and final.

"Now," Viridian reached into the bucket of water and conveniently found two sponges waiting for him, "Shall we?"

Kes grabbed the other sponge and with a gleeful smile began brushing his chest while Viridian began with her back.

Despite the horror of what had come to pass, they had never before felt a peace as they had in this moment. Alone. Together. Tomorrow would come. But for now… this was enough.

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was certainly fun to write with Jacob, special thanks to him for his help. Now normally this would be it but, during the writing process we made an omake which basically goes into the 40k version of these characters, if you are interested if not thats cool, and I will see you all in the next chapter.**

 **OMAKE: Warhammer 40,000**

"Damn space commies," Viridain cursed, as the Tau spaceship flew off, "but they at least have nice beds. And great digital waifu's."

Kes butted him in the ribs, "Don't get any funny ideas."

"What with the Commissar Colonel around? He'd murdered me on the spot. Besides I can't have funny ideas. Those involve daemons."

"Those Daemons better not be Slaanashi."

"Do I look like a guy with a BDSM fetish?"

"...well."

"Kes… honey… don't even think about it."

"It was just a passing thought."

"Well purge it with Promethium laced with love."

"Mmm, maybe you could help with that."

"Ahem!"

They both turned around to see the perpetually pissed off face of Sherman, their superior officer, glaring at them. His scarred face turned a shade of crimson, the scar running down the side of his face both made an Uh oh face before he cracked a very wry smile:

"Get a room," before he marched off to find the nearest bar.

"How the Throne does he keep doing that?"

"I think he might be a blank."

"Really?" he was back at their shadow, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Sir, permission to be candid," Kes asked.

"You don't answer to me, Sister Mallory, but granted."

"HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT!? VIRIDIAN IS A FREAKING PSYKER!"

"Kes…"

"It's alright son. It's quite simple. Catachan," and he left it at that to once again go find himself a bar. Though Viridian found the idea rude, he couldn't help but look into the passing Commissar's mind.

He didn't find anything. It was blank. Devoid of anything, and with this, Sherman smiled.

 _Go ask your brother's father in law about that trick,_ he thought loudly to the psyker and he was out the door before another word could be said.


	44. Prelude to Battle

**AN: Hello everyone sorry for the long wait, it's been a very rough few months, rest assured I have three new chapters for you, each chapter will be published over a period of three weeks hopefully I will be able to get chapters out consistently but I make now promises, special thanks to Jacob for his help.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars**

 **Now with that out of the way enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 43: Prelude to Battle

Viridian found himself staring up into the bare metal ceiling of his cabin on the Second Chance; the gentle weight, and breathing of Kes hot against his chest with her head resting in the crook of his neck. He absently played with her hair as he tried to fall asleep, but sleep remained elusive. Or more accurately it was being chased away by the thoughts of facing one of the great dragons of Morgoth.

He then realized why, it was because he was going to face the dragon with the love of his life, Viridian took a deep breath 'everything is going to be fine, just hit the dragon in his jacksie like Nori suggested… what the heck is his jacksie?'.

"It means that a person has the ability to sodomize himself." Kes said sleepily

"Um… Kes? Why do you know what it means?"

"Ask… mom…" Kes murmured softly, groggily turning over on him to switch the position of her head on his chest.

"... I am so going to kill her if I ever meet her."

"She may deserve it… but… I don't want you to do that." she admitted, looking up into his eyes, "you don't need to add more needless blood on your hands."

"I know," he sighed knowingly, "I just…"

He felt her hand caress his cheek softly, her eyes boring into his. It was also right about this moment that he realized he needed to shave.

"I know," was all she had to say.

And that was all that was needed to be said, after that exchange the lovers drifted off to sleep.

Early that morning the door swung open and Jane came walking in. He blinked at the two lovers waking up and frowned, "Please tell me you both didn't do what I think you did."

Viridian groaned, "Jane, I am not **that** stupid. We didn't do anything like that."

"Good, because we're going to need you both at your best." Jane nodded, "I'll meet you at the ramp."

The couple stretched out and sat up, yawning as they did. As Kes moved to get dressed, and probably find caffa if there was any to be found, Viridian closed his eyes and stretched out with his feelings; searching for the members of the company. His mind found the dwarves first, though that wasn't hard. Their auras burned bright with excitement and fury at the battle to come with the dragon, and the nervousness came with that. Yes, the natural fear of facing Smaug was there but compared to the brightness of their righteous anger and conviction? It came utterly short. This was their home, their birthright by blood and land, and they would gladly die than see Smaug rule it a moment longer.

Viridian smiled, imaging he'd feel the same if **he** was at the head of a mighty band looking to liberate the Temple on Coruscant. But the thought of meeting Vader again though, chilled him. He moved on.

As for the Humans of the group, the part of the company that had no real stake in this quest - save for Viridian and Celebion who have been there since day one. Yet for one reason or another they'd came anyway. Still the idea of facing the dragon for them was… unsettling. Yes, they were soldiers, and as soldiers they had a duty to see their mission through, which by this point necessitated securing the mountain. But… well, who wouldn't be terrified of facing what was essentially a centuries old flame-projector on wings?

And of course, there were his fellow Jedi, present company included. Collectively speaking, it felt like a blending of the two previous groups. No, they didn't have the personal attachment to the Mountain like the Dwarves did, but they were determined to see it through. At the same time, they weren't stupid. Fighting Smaug wasn't going to be easy, but it had to be done. He could say the same about Celebion, too. Though he was glad the Ranger wasn't going into the Mountain with him; he'd just reunited with his family.

That left Bilbo. An unexpected family, but family nonetheless.

"Aww, you see Bilbo as family?" Kes teased him and he smirked at her.

"You do realize the guy is like 50 years old? He'd be practically my uncle's age."

"I didn't know you had an uncle."

"If I did, that is."

"How is Bilbo doing?"

"Um, he's thinking something along the lines of 'Don't get burned, don't get burned, find a weakspot, don't get burned, hey is somebody poking in my head? Viridian, get out my head!'"

Kes fell to the floor laughing.

 _Hey, is that Kes? Is she laughing at me? Don't laugh at me!_

"Ha ha ha! Sorry, Bilbo! That was just too funny!"

 _Ha! Well, you're not going to face a giant oven of death by your lonesome!_

"It's okay, Bilbo," Viridian reassured him, "we'll be right outside. Plus, you've got your ring. If he sees you-"

"Which is unlikely, he'll probably just smell you!" Kes said cheerfully.

 _What do you mean? Do I smell?_

"Yes, you smell like cheese," she chuckled as Viridian shot her a disapproving look, "sorry, I'm kidding, Bilbo."

 _Do you hear me laughing?_

"Buddy, it'll be alright. We'll be in there, ready to stab him to death," he then added with a smile, "just like you did with Azog."

 _He's not dead, though! And he's not the size of a bloody building! And he doesn't shoot fire! And he doesn't…_ he stopped for a moment, and they could hear him taking a deep breath, _I'm sorry, I'm just so terrified._

"You'll be fine," Kes reassured him, "after all, not many can say they took on a forest of giant spiders… and won."

 _That's fair, I suppose. But I'm just a Baggins._

"Again, Azog," Viridian reminded him, "plus, don't forget what Gandalf said. You're also a Took. And you've already done more than Bullroarer did. And-"

 _Viridian, you can tone down the flattery now. Besides, you already have a betrothed lady, have you not? And she is much prettier than I._

They both blushed at that.

"Um… thanks, Bilbo."

 _You are quite welcome, my fair golden lady._

"And who's flattering now?" Viridian smirked.

 _Hey, I learned it from you._

"Oh dear."

 _Yes, indeed. Still, thank you both. I needed some reassurance. Now, I'm going to go back into my corner to rehearse some more. Don't worry, I'll be done for a spot of breakfast and probably second breakfast too. Until then, no more mind poking, or I will poke you with Sting! Until then, cheerio!_

And he was gone.

'Hobbits,' Viridian mouthed as he rolled his eyes.

 _I heard that!_

Two hours later

"Alright, let's go over the plan again," Jane commanded as the Second Chance roared over the lake, making its way to the foothills of the Lonely Mountain.

"Again?" Kes groaned, "We've gone over it three times now!"

"Yeah? Well, we're going over it again until we all know our roles like the back of our hands."

The plan was fairly straightforward. The Second Chance would take the ground parties to Dale, one group would stay in Dale to fortify it, and the other would walk the rest of the way to the mountain so as to avoid waking the dragon with the Corellian freighter, when the party got to the mountain, they would find the entrance, wait for it to reveal its location and commence with the five step plan to kill the dragon.

Step one, send the Hobbit in. Bilbo pursed his lips at that.

Step two: wait for the Hobbit to find the weakness,

Step Three: have the Hobbit steal a goblet from the treasury.

Step four, after the Hobbit comes out, go in and kill the dragon, should the hobbit fail to get out, go in and kill the dragon.

Step five. Celebrate over the corpse of the dragon.

Step six. If in the mood, cook the dragon and eat him.

"Wait a minute that's six steps." Kes pointed out. Jane smirked:

"If we're in the mood, as I said. And good, you can count."

"Funny," Kes grumbled. Jak shrugged:

` "Plus, I want his tooth. I need to make an axe."

"An axe out of bone?" Kili asked, slightly flabbergasted, "You have swords made of fire, hand held bows that shoot fire… and you want to make an axe out of bone? What on Arda for?"

"Bit of an ancient tradition," Jak explained, "back in the day, my ancestors used to make axes out of Mythosaur bone."

"Mythosaurs?"

"Imagine a dragon with no wings, but as big as a city. They died out a long time ago, so I'm settling for the next best thing."

"...wait, you had wingless dragons the size of cities?"

"Yeah. You gotta remember, the first Mandalorians were a space faring people, so killing them wasn't as difficult as you would think. They did hunt them to extinction, afterall."

"As big as a city?" Bilbo repeated, "I'm sorry, but what the blazes did such things eat? I mean something that big-"

"Bilbo, Mandalore is a death planet in all but name. The Mythosaurs might have been the biggest things there, but they weren't the only big thing there, either."

"There's always a bigger fish," Jasmine chuckled.

"Why on Arda would you settle on such a world!?" Bilbo exclaimed, "It sounds like the whole bloody planet's out to kill you!"

"That's the point," Jak countered, "they liked the challenge."

"...you people are mental."

"But we're never boring, either," Jak smirked, earning him a tender squeeze from Ulra. A few moments later, the Second Chance arrived at the ruined city of Dale and hovered in a holding pattern over the town square. A few minutes passed of unloading cargo and personnel, and goodbyes and good lucks were exchanged in a timely manner.

With this the company walked along the banks of the River Running between Dale and Erebor. Around them they saw the burned blackened trees, and the small amount of green grass sprouting up from the ashen wastes created by the smoldering heat of Dragon Fire.

Thorin scaled a hill in front of them. He stopped at the crest of it and turned to the company, "It appears your ship found its way here. My good friend." Thorin called to Viridian.

Viridian immediately leapt up to the crest of the hill, and stared at the old moss covered skeleton of the Carthian Corvette almost forlornly, "Oh man, General Castor is not going to be happy about this."

"We found a planet, didn't we?!" Jak called up, "I'd say we did our job."

"Then why haven't they shown up yet?" Viridian asked the Mandalorian.

Kes blushed and looked down somewhat embarrassed.

"Oh right, codes and whatnot." Viridian pursed his lips.

"Should we see if there is anything useful in it?" Bilbo asked.

"I suppose we should, I'm not optimistic though it looks like someone came through and has picked through it like vultures." Bard said with a bitter bite.

Viridian nodded, "May as well, there were a lot of hidden nooks and crannies. I doubt the looters got everything."

He looked back and waved them over, and they began to look through the torn up ship. They found a few laser cutters, some medical kits, and a pair of Wrist mounted Energy Shield generators. Oh and some explosives, because you can't have enough of those.

"You know, it's kind of a shame that whoever stripped this thing didn't leave it's laser cannons," Niles commented, "coulda just set the things up on a rover or something and maybe have Bilbo shoot Smaug to death."

"Niles, we have no idea if it'll even do anything more than just tickle it," Jaing countered.

"Well, we could just have Bilbo stick it down his throat and pull the trigger till it goes click."

"Um, thank you for your kind words and the offer for such weaponry," Bilbo replied sardonically, "but I have no intention getting anywhere near his mouth, thank you very much."

"Yeah, we really shouldn't have Bilbo take any more unnecessary risks than he needs to. We just need him to identify the dragon's weaknesses." Bard argued.

"Ah c'mon, the little guy tackled the bloody pale Orc and humiliated him so badly his hypothetical grand kiddies are gonna feel the shame!" Niles shot back.

"OH FOR PITY'S SAKE!" Bilbo screamed, "I don't need you to keep reminding me that I tackled Azog! In fact, I don't want you to! He swore to kill everybody I love and burn my home to the ground! It takes every ounce of my fiber not to think about it, and you reminding me isn't helping! And besides, how does tackling an Orc even remotely translate to me doing the same to a dragon!?"

"Oh… I'm sorry, laddie. I was only joking."

"Do I look like I'm laughing!?"

"No, you do not," Thorin replied with the authority of a soon to be king, "I decree we will make no more jests at the burglars expense. And Bilbo? You will need not think about Azog's threat much sooner. When we are finished here, I shall seek him and his ilk out, and I shall give him the justice of the Dwarves before he ever dares threaten your Shire. I've grown quite a liking to that place."

"Thank you," Bilbo sighed, "it is a wonderful place to live. So, shall we go up the mountain before my cowardice convinces me to turn around and run away?"

"Cowardice?" Viridian scoffed, "Come now, Bilbo. You have never once shown cowardice on this journey."

"Although needy might be a better description," Fili chuckled.

"Oy, my handkerchief is very useful, for your information! And if I'm needy, then you're all damsels in distress!"

"Excuse me?" Kes asked in indignation.

"Does that have to do with the spiders you-"

"WE AGREED NEVER TO TALK ABOUT THAT!" Xey and literally everybody else involved in said spider incident exclaimed, "Hey, Bilbo? Where you going?"

"If I don't start walking, we'll just stand around lollygagging! Now come on! We are on a time limit after all!"

"At least he doesn't have an arrow to the knee," one of the Guards murmured to Bard, who chuckled softly.

"Yes, I remember."

"Remember what?" Viridian asked

"Oh, we had this fool come to town claiming to be born of dragons or some nonsense. He started this rant after one of my men said he took an arrow to the knee."

"But that's horrible!" Jak exclaimed, "You'd have to get the knee replaced… or whatever it is you did."

"Oh, we had to amputate it, but we gave him a pegleg from a pirate we confiscated. He's quite fine now. He got married, too," one of the Guards explained with a laugh, "still, this son of dragons fool then claimed to be able to blow us away with his voice. Then the strangest thing happened."

"What?" everybody asked.

"A big bear showed up, killed him and took his helmet. It then raided our story and tried to take off with most of our mead. We must've shot it full of twenty arrows."

"Um…" Kes looked at them all, "anybody else think this was Beorn?"

"I never took Beorn for a drunkard," Balin commented, "maybe one of his fellows."

"Quite possibly. I mean, the damn thing did get in a sword fight with one of our guards."

"You're making this up, aren't you?" Viridian deadpanned. Bard gave him a fodder eating grin:

"No more made up than the Hobbits inventing Golf."

"Hey! That actually happened!" Bilbo called from the front. Bard and the Guards shrugged.

"So did the Dragonborn and the Bear Born or… what did we call it?"

"Dragon Bear."

"Ah yes, the Dragon Bear. If nothing else, it makes for a good story."

"Perhaps someone should make a holo-film out of it?" Kes asked with a childish smile.

"Holo-film?" Bard asked.

"Um… basically a book of moving pictures that plays out in front of you."

"So… like a play?"

"Yes, but it's recorded, so you can watch it anytime you wish."

"...can we have some of those?" one the Guards asked, "Or at least, the machinery to make such a recording? We have a lot of ballads and bards that we're a little sick of constant rehearsing and acting for."

"Oh dear, look what you Jedi have done," Jak laughed, "you've introduced them to the plague of Holo-films! Now their brains shall melt and they will become overweight from sitting on couches all day."

"...that doesn't sound so bad," another of the Guards replied, "do you know how much I'd pay to get a day like that? You think walking around and standing all day is at all fun or pleasing on the legs? No offense, sir."

"None taken," Bard replied, "after a good days work, I wouldn't mind such a thing… although, I must ask what a couch is?"

"It's another word for sofa."

"Ah, we have those."

"Do you have ones with magic fingers?" Xey asked, earning a blush from Jak.

"Magic fingers?"

"It's a massaging device," Viridian explained, "like a thousand soft hands working your back while you're sitting down."

"Eh, no offense to you, my pretty lady, but that doesn't sound like something we'd want."

"Oh, why's that?"

"When we want to sit and relax, we sit and relax. When we want a massage, we go down to the steam house. We don't do both at the same time."

"Fair enough."

"Hey chaps!" Fili pointed ahead, "Look at Bilbo! He thinks he's on top of the world!"

They all then looked up into the foothills and saw Bilbo standing about halfway up the mountain, waving at them. He then shouted back:

"I AM!"

"How did he get that far up there?" Bard asked.

"While you all were entertaining us with your tall tales and magic sofas," Balin replied with a wry grin, "our burglar clearly had his mind on the mission."

"WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG!?" Bilbo called down to them, "COME ON! THE DRAGON WILL BE DEAD BY THE TIME YOU GET UP HERE AT THAT PACE!"

"Ever the Took," Viridian chuckled.

After a few moments the group finally regrouped, and Gloin held up the map, "Let's see. The gate is right there." the dwarf pointed at the massive gate at the front of the mountain where the river seemed to be flowing out from beneath the stone courtyard. "So we need to travel along side the mountain till we find the hidden set of stairs."

"Oh it's that easy eh?" Niles chuckled. The dwarves however didn't laugh; they got their game faces on. They weren't in the mood for jokes at the moment.

Niles turned to Dex, who shrugged, and continued with the group. Minutes turned to hours as the sun reached the late afternoon.

Gloin frowned thoughtfully, "If I am reading this right, we should be close to our mark." he announced to the group."

The group began to search the cliff face, but nothing even remotely looked like a giant stone staircase that would take them to the top of the mountain.

"Spread out!" Thorin bellowed, "The staircase must be around here somewhere. It might be camouflaged."

"Might?" Jak asked, to which Thorin shrugged.

"The staircase hasn't been used in centuries."

"Centuries?" Bilbo asked as he milled about the hillside, "Then it might be covered in moss, or the stonework might have faded from rain damage, or-"

He suddenly exclaimed and fell out of sight. "Bilbo!" Kes shouted, "Are you okay?"

"I think I found it," he called back, "I tripped over it."

Balin chuckled to himself, "And this is why Hobbits make good burglars. They find what you're looking for even when they're not looking."

"Yeah, by being clumsy!" Niles replied, earning a burst of laughter from the dwarf, "Might as well hook him up with a Gungan!"

"A what?"

"Nevermind."

"Let's follow the stairs then if there is nothing else to do?" Bard asked the company. The company began their trek up the ancient staircase. Tau stared up at the towering mountain and felt a cold shiver run up his spine. Butch waddled up to him, putting his head into his open hand, shooting him a questioning look. He patted his head, scratching behind his ear with a small smile.

"You okay?"

Tau looked up to find Viridian looking at him. He shrugged, "I'm fine."

"You haven't spoken at all during the entire trip."

"I didn't see the point to," he then looked past him to the mountain again and shivering, "the thing in there is pure, wanton evil. There's nothing inside of him other than an endless hunger that will never be filled. He… terrifies me."

"C'mon," Viridian patted him on the shoulder, "you didn't do so bad against that Wraith."

"Maybe, but then again he wasn't the size of a building and breathed fire…"

Foothills of the Mountain; the ruined city of Dale

Even though he wouldn't admit it, Jane was in his element. Bellowing out orders, directing activities… it had been such a long time since he'd properly commanded a contingent as a proper officer. In a way, he kind of missed it. Granted that was probably a good thing. It kept his mind off the looming danger coming their way in the form of an enemy army, or the fact his brother was going into the Mountain to fight a flying flamethrower.

"Do not think of it," Celebion said suddenly.

"What?" Jane asked, turning to face him. He shrugged.

"You are thinking of your brother. Do not do this, Jane Mallory, for it distracts from the now."

"I know, but…"

"Your brother is a Jedi Knight, one I am proud to have adventured this far with him. Though Smaug may be a dangerous beast, we have faced things as worse and here we are."

"I know. No offense, but I'm guessing you're thinking the same for Niwen."

"No offense taken, Jane, for you are correct. But if we succeed here, she will be quite safe in Lake Town. Take that to heart and you may yet live to betroth my daughter."

"Um, what?"

"...was this not what you wanted?" Celebion asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I… well, yes… I mean… I don't know," he shook his head, "I've been married once before and…" he then looked at Celebion, "are you giving me your blessing?"

"I am," the Dunedain said simply, "I see no reason not to. You are strong and an honorable man with a good heart. Besides, my daughter does care a great deal about you. And, well," he grumbled softly, shaking his head, "I'm not going to be around forever, and I want her to be well taken care of."

"I understand," Jane then scrutinized his face, "how old are you exactly?"

"Eighty five."

"Don't you Dunedain live up to at least two hundred? You would actually outlive me."

"Yes. I even heard of one living as long five hundred… but that is not the point. You and I are in the business of killing, and I fear that my day will come sooner than my natural passing."

"So could mine," Jane countered.

"Yes, but it will not. If the choice is between yours or mine-"

"No." Jane interrupted him flatly, "That is never going to happen and I don't wanna hear another word about it. Moment men start talking like that is the moment they die, so with all due respect, shut up. You're going to live, I'm gonna live, and so is Niwen," he then took him by the shoulder, "after all, who else is going to walk her down the aisle?"

"The what?"

"It's a marriage custom. I'll tell you more about it later."

"It sounds like I need to live, then," Celebion smirked.

"Don't make me make it an order, Ranger. Plus… I gotta ask Niwen to marry me, so yeah."

"Heh, indeed. So Captain Mallory, what is our plan of defense?"

A few minutes passed and Mallory had the full contingent of his defense huddled around a map diagram of the city of Dale. With a holographic pen, he began to outline what they were going to do.

"Now we know the Orcs are going to come from the South, and we're between them and Lake Town. So going to lure them in the front gate, here," he circled the main gate of the city, "once we have the full army or at least most of them in, we'll have a ray shield generator setup and erect a barrier at the ruins of the gate."

"But we'll be trapped with the bastards!" One of the guards from Lake Town exclaimed.

"That's the point," Jane countered, "and the Orcs will be trapped with **us**. The shield in question has enough juice to fry anyone trying to get through it on both ends, so they won't be able to escape."

He then circled the main road leading through the center of the city, "Now most armies flow like water: down the path of least resistance. So, we'll let them come through down the avenue here. What we'll do is set up a series of ambush points on either side of the road and start engaging them once we have enough of them in."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," another Guard said, "but what it the Orcs start milling through the other city streets?"

Dex answered that one, "We'll blow up a few of the spare buildings to block those roads off. Gotta remember, we gotta make it look like we ain't here."

With that cleared up, Jane continued, "Like I said, we'll ambush them all along this road. However, we'll start retreating back towards the center of town bit by bit, drawing the Orcs further and further in until we get here," he circled a position at the back of the town.

"The Keep?" another Guard asked.

"The Keep," Jane confirmed, "most of the walls and battlements are still intact, so that would be a good place to make a stand. Meanwhile, we'll boopytrap the roads leading in with as much explosives, oil and fire, plus some pit traps it if we got the time, and set them off once we retreat back to the keep. Hopefully, that will be enough to kill most of them."

"Yes, and I have an idea to provide those of us who do not possess your blasters with an equal footing," Celebion chided in, signalling a pair of guards to come in and drop down a series of boxes marked with alcoholic symbols at the feet of the company, "most of them are empty, but we could fill them up with fuel and attach cloth to them."

"Ah, Molotovs!" Du grinned, "Haven't made some of those in a while."

"Molo… toths?" Celebion repeated. Du shrugged.

"Named after some rebel dude, I'm not sure. You should ask Daniel about it. What do you call them?"

"Fire Bottles," Celebion replied, "but same idea, I suppose. And once we get to the Keep, what then?"

"Then we kill and kill until the need for killing is done," Jane answered grimly, "we'll have the range advantage, over all. Plus, the confusion should be enough to keep them from organizing."

"I can help with that," Ayla stepped in with her long barrelled sniper rifle, "is that bell tower stable?"

"Should be. You wanna be up there?"

She nodded, "Good sight range. I can focus on killing Captains and officers and what not. Just need a spotter and maybe a couple of guys to keep 'em from getting up at me."

"A spotter we can grant, but we'll need everybody else," Jane replied.

"Fair enough. Who wants to be cooped up with me for a couple of hours?" she asked the collection of men of different nations and worlds before her. A Guard stood up and grinned at her.

"No offense, fair lady, but that sounds like a rather vulgar invitation."

"Well aren't you cute," Ayla chuckled at him, "I have my eyes on someone else."

"Fair enough. I'm married."

"Works for me. Grab your kit and let's go. Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

The dark hair smiled at her as he collect his longbow and other gear, including a dark purple tunic and hood, "They call me Clint, my fair lady."

"Hmm, you certainly got a bit of hawkish look to you. Alright, let's go."

"Hey, and no funny business, you two!" Jane called after them.

"What are you, Niles?" Ayla called back as she and Clint headed over to the bell tower to begin the long process of preparing for some good old fashioned camping and sniping. Jane then turned to the Jedi and Mandalorians.

"You guys will be the rock of this whole Thing. You've got the armor and power to do it, so you'll hold the keep until the fighting gets your way."

"Why not at the front?" Du asked.

"Because we'd scare them away," Ulra replied, "after all, the Orcs retreated at the river when they couldn't overwhelm us."

"Exactly," Jane nodded, "we won't bring out our big guns," he pointed at them, "until they're committed and they ain't got no way to go but forward. Sound good?"

The Jedi and Mandos took a long look at each other and nodded. Jane looked at Shara with meaningful glare, "That won't be a problem, will it?"

"No," she shook her head, "it won't be."

"Good. Alright, I think that's it. Anything else to add?"

Everybody shook their heads.

"Any questions?"

They again shook their heads.

"Okay. Let's get started."

Laketown

With the absence of Bard, Tauriel took it upon herself to take command of the city's defenses and none complained about it. Granted, there wasn't much to do other than follow the standard protocols. The waterways were sealed, the drawbridge pulled up, patrols set up and routes planned, weapons distributed and shelters were established.

Granted, the Mandalorians had the idea to start setting up lakeborn spike traps and perhaps rigging a few barrels with explosives to make some mines. While this was agreed upon in earnest, the people drew the lines at spreading oil around the lake to turn it on fire. Aside from the waste, a great many were fishermen and weren't exactly keen on the idea of killing their future income.

Aside from defense came the preparation for evacuation. Carts of supplies were being loaded into barges and ships, blocks full of people organized in a timely fashion within shelters in the event that they had to be shuffled off in a hurry. It was within one of these shelters that Niwen and her children found themselves. She watched them from a distance, beaming as only a mother could as she watched them playing soccer with the other children. Their happiness filled her with more than she could bare or know.

A moment of doubt entered her mind. If only Jane was here as well… "Your thinking out loud." Niwen turned to see the Shamed Shaper standing behind her a soft smile on her face.

"Sorry about that. Did I say something?"

"No, its just I know what you're thinking, I was in the exact same situation."

"You were?" Niwen asked curiously, never hearing this story before.

"Yes…" she nodded sadly, "I was. With a man from the Warrior Caste."

"Wait I thought that was considered Heretical." Niwen stated.

"It was at the time, but we didn't care. We loved each other that much."

"We were preparing for a skirmish with the Chiss on one of their colonies, Rhigar I believe the blue skins called it, I was tasked with getting our equipment set up so the warriors that were retrieved could be healed for next engagement. He was tasked with fortifying a small city we had conquered on the planet. We… grew close to one another over the campaign. I had healed many of his wounds and he had protect me for so long that we…" she shook her head and smiled.

"He was such a strong fellow. A little humorless, but very endearing. I am not afraid to admit the many private moments of joy we had, and… we both wanted more," she shook her head with a forlorn sadness, "we feared the repercussions. If we had children, we would be discovered. We would be sacrificed to the Gods. we couldn't do it. Especially not if we had children to begin with."

"What did you do?"

"He wanted to run. Take me and leave the Vong altogether. Perhaps find a world to ourselves to raise our children. But I… I was afraid. I wasn't fearless like him, I wasn't strong enough."

Niwen nodded at her, her eyes beginning to understand the lesson in the story. She continued:

"Finally, he made plans to take me during the battle of Rhigar. He would find on of the Blue Skin ships. He had become familiar with its technology. We would flee together. I should have gone with him. I should have been with him every step of the way during that battle. But I was afraid. So, he planned to come and find me, bring me when the time was right and we could leave," her face drooped as her body became utterly hollow, "he never came. The Blue Skins got him in the end."

"I'm… I'm so sorry."

"There is nothing to be sorry for, Niwen. You had no part. The blame was mine and mine alone. Had I been strong enough, he might've lived. I might've been a mother and I…" she closed her eyes and wiped away her tears, "Niwen, I know you feel great affection for Jane Mallory. I can see in your eyes. I might even dare say it is love. Is this so?"

Niwen looked away at her children, pondering her future as well as her own. Finally, she turned back to her and answered, "Yes. Yes, I do. I didn't know before, but I know it now."

"Then do not wait," the Vong Shaper urged, "do not wait for some right time. Do not wait for others to be accepting. Seize your love and do not let him go. Be with him, Niwen. Be happy and be a mother and a wife," she then looked at her children with a saddened look of what she could have been had she'd been braver, "do not become like me."

The Lonely Mountain

"Now we just need for Autumn to end." Balin said.

Viridian groaned, "Cark that, we came all this way, and nearly died too many times to count. Give me the damn key, I will drag it across the rock face till I find the damn key hole."

"I dunno know, laddie," Balin mused, "what about the magic shrouding the door?"

"I'll pray to Eru, then! Just gimme the key, already!"

"Wait when did this happen?" Xey asked.

"It happened after I realized that he sent Tau and his friends to save Jane and I at Dol Guldur."

"That was a short testimony." Bilbo stated.

"How I like them. Now give me the key."

Thorin gave Viridian a hesitant look before shrugging, "What's the harm in trying?" he asked, before taking off the necklace that held the key and holding it out to him.

Viridian reached out cupping his hand beneath the key, and took the key in his hands. Viridian looked a little sheepishly at it before he sighed and got on his knees. He bowed his head, bringing the key to lips as he began to whisper in a voice so soft only he could hear his words:

"Eru… I've never prayed to you before. Come to think of it, I've never even prayed before. I hadn't the mind to before, but I know that you are here. I know that you will listen, so I beg you to listen now. Before us lies a dragon, yes, but for me and for us there is more. For the Dwarves, it is the chance to regain their home. For us Jedi, it is the chance to rid this world of a great evil. And for me… for me, beyond Smaug's death lies a marriage to my beloved. I beg of you then, listen to my prayer. Grant me the chance to be with Kes. Guide me through this key. I beg you."

Out of nowhere, and beyond his own action, the key in his hands started to move. It practically dragged him along for the ride, the key raking the walls over and over again.

"Viridian, what are you-" Kes began.

"Guys, I'm not doing this!"

"Blessed be to Eru," Thorin smiled, "truly we cannot be beaten now. Even God himself is on our side!"

Upon these words did Viridian suddenly stop. He pressed the key forward and it went in through the wall, sitting there for a moment before he had the sense to turn it. When he did, the great stone door opened with a loud groan and before them lay the entrance to Erebor, the lost home of the Dwarves. Collectively, everybody turned to look at Bilbo.

"I'm rather torn." Bilbo said breaking the silence, "On one hand, God is on our side, on the other, I was hoping for a bit of rest."

"Then rest," Thorin commanded, "after all, we are several hours earlier than-"

"I was jesting, Thorin. Of course I will go in," Bilbo took a deep breath in, trying desperate to get himself the mental courage necessary to give him the urge to take the first step. He shook his head, "Can someone give me a push?"

Kili and Fili collectively gave him one, singing slightly, "one foot after the other, burglar! And soon you'll be walking down the door!"

"Enough!" Thorin growled and took the Hobbit by the shoulder, "Bilbo, remember your mission. You are to confirm if Smaug is alive or not. If he is, you are to discover any weaknesses he has. However, do not under any circumstances get yourself killed. If he starts to stir, leave immediately. Do you understand?"

"I do, Thorin," Bilbo smiled with a confidence he shouldn't have been feeling but he did in this moment, "by the end of tonight, you will have your mountain back. This, I promise."

Thorin smiled deeply, "You are truly a brother, Bilbo. I am only saddened you were not born a Dwarf, so that I might have known you longer."

"Thank you, Thorin. If were not for you, I would not have found something I had lacked for so long."

"And that is?"

"My courage. Though… it is probably a good thing that i was not born a Dwarf," he then pointed a finger at Jasmine, "unless you want to go too!" He smiled. She glared at him for a moment.

"I am Cathar, Bilbo. Fire is especially unbecoming for me."

"I jest, Jasmine. But thank you all," they all gave him nods and smiles, and he shook his head, "well, I suppose I should be off then. Um, can someone give me a push again? My feet are trying to betray me."

Viridan gave him a shove, saying as he went, "Use your ring, and don't do anything stupid."

As Bilbo waddled down into the depths, he pulled the very thing out and put it on. In a moment, he was gone.

"Now we wait, I suppose," Kes said.

"Yes," Thorin replied as he sat upon a stone, "now we wait."

 **AN: Well I hope you all enjoyed that I will see you all next week with Chapter 44: The Greatest Calamity of the Age**


	45. The Greatest Calamity of the Age

**AN: another week another chapter, Special thanks to Jacob for his help on this chapter, I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Star Wars nor the Tales of Arda they belong to LucasFilm and Tolkien respectively, with that out of the way here is the chapter.**

Chapter 44: The Greatest Calamity of the Age

Bilbo's silent footsteps rang loudly in his ears. He could hear the blood rushing through his body as all his senses screamed at him to bolt. His spirit was the only voice that spurred him on this path, the path that he hoped would lead to the discovery of the dragon's corpse.

'Don't fool yourself, Bilbo, things are never that easy.' the Hobbit thought to himself with a snort.

Bilbo grew more and more comfortable and steady as he walked, his stride picking up ever so often as the perceived danger of the dragon didn't come to kill him every time he rounded a corner.

He rounded another corner, coming to a stop his mouth agape as he caught the majesty of the Dwarves treasury. It seemed to go on for miles! There were literal foothills of golden coins and precious gems. It was as if the ocean itself had been turned to gold!

Bilbo shook his head, "You may be invisible, Bilbo, but you should stay on the hard surfaces and avoid stepping into the coins. If that dragon is alive, he will find you in an instant."

The hobbit walked along the smooth stone pathway, looking to and fro, searching for anysign of their quarry. Several minutes went by and Bilbo had yet to find anything. Hope began to rise in his chest, 'Could the dragon really be dead?' he thought to himself. He shook his head, not wanting to grow complacent. After all, the treasury was massive, and for all he knew Smaug could be buried under the treasure.

Bilbo looked up to see a flight of stairs, 'Perhaps I might be able to spot him if I get higher.', with the softness of a cat, he ran up the stairs onto a higher platform, it gave him an almost total eyesight coverage of the treasury, Bilbo couldn't see anything on the surface. Bilbo pursed his lips having a feeling that it wouldn't be that easy he scanned the hills and valleys to see if there was any shift that would give the great beast away.

Bilbo gave the gold landscape ten thorough scans, and he still saw nothing, "It seems like he is nowhere to be found,, Bilbo." Baggins commented.

It was then that he heard it, or more accurately felt it. A piercing low rumble. He could feel it in his bones, like a perpetual chill that he could not warm from. He didn't know where it was coming from, but it was growing louder and louder the longer he stood there. Bilbo shivered, a primal terror welled up in his chest telling him to hide and flee. He steeled himself, 'I will not give into fear, not now. Not when we're so close.'

Bilbo's eyes grew more focused thanks to the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He conducted one more scan, looking for something, anything. In the middle of it he finally spotted an anomaly in the landscape: a hill two hundred feet away rose and fell ever so slightly, like it was breathing.

"I finally found you, you abominable spawn of Glaurung." Bilbo growled softly. He turned to make his way out to tell the company, when he felt his foot hit something, and to his horror he saw a golden goblet fall off his platform thirty feet into the gold landscape. He didn't stand around. He bolted from the platform, making a quick choice to not go down the direct path to the exit as Smaug would likely scan that area.

The goblet hit the coins with a loud ting and the coins shuffled at the disturbance. Everything fell silent, and Bilbo hid behind a stone pillar. His head peaked around the pillar to see the anomalous breathing hill roll, revealing red and gold scales rising up like a wave.

"Oh no," he breathed, "oh no."

Bilbo's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the true size of the monstrous creature. The dragon's body-length easily reached out from where he slept to his watchout position with ease. His snouted, reptilian head was easily twelve feet long. His milky white teeth were like blades, shining with dreadful menace. His scales were a golden canvas with the blood of his enemies staining it, an extension of the beasts utter cruelty and avarice.

The dragon stood up to his full height, stretching out his impressive wingspan that nearly matched his already impressive body. Smaug let out a yawn, the low rumble sending shivers through the hobbits tiny body. Then, he spoke with a raspy, gurgling voice with the aftereffect of thunder bellowing in the deep.

"Well, thief! I smell you, and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along!" Smaug's voice turned sardonic, and Bilbo could feel the fire lizard smile, "Help yourself again, there is plenty to spare!" Bilbo struggled as the low frequency sounds the dragon emitted vibrated through him like a pounding drum, triggering his fight or flight response.

Bilbo fought back against the growing fear, pushing himself to breathe in a steady rhythm until he could get his heart under control. When he did, Bilbo knew that he needed to stall for time. He drew up what he knew about dragon lore, and decided to play on the dragon's probable vanity, "No thank you, O Smaug the tremendous!" Bilbo said with false confidence, "I did not come for presents. I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them."

"Do you now?" Smaug asked a little flattered, even though he thought it to be a bold faced lie.

"Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities."

"You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," Smaug growled, "You seem familiar with my name, but I don't seem to remember smelling you before. Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask?"

Bilbo chuckled nervously, "You may indeed! I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen."

"So I can well believe," Smaug observed frustrated that he couldn't find the intruder, "But that is hardly your usual name."

"I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number."Bilbo continued growing more and more confident.

"Lovely titles!" Sneered Smaug, "But lucky numbers don't always come off."

"I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me."

"Those don't sound so creditable," scoffed Smaug

"I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer: and I am Barrel-rider," Bilbo continued actually beginning to enjoy this riddling.

"That's better!" Smaug said contently as if he got something out of that exchange, "But don't let your imagination run away with you!" all the while he thought to himself, 'The Lake-men. Some nasty scheme of those miserable tub-trading Lake-men, or I am a Lizard. I haven't been down that way for an age and an age, but I will soon alter that!'

"Very well, O Barrel-rider!" Smaug growled, "Maybe Barrel was your pony's name, or maybe not. You may walk unseen, but this is my mountain! I will soon find you... **And** your dwarven companions!"

"Dwarves?!" Bilbo asked in mock surprise.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Smaug snapped, his voice shaking the foundations of the room like a microtremor, "I know the smell of dwarf! I smelled their presence on you Thief, Barrel Rider. You'll come to a bad end if you go with such friends. I don't mind if you go back and tell them so from me." Smaug sniffed twice and craned his head in surprise. There were two smells the dragon was unfamiliar with, not just one. Not just this Thief.

"A cat?" Smaug snorted, "You brought a cat to my mountain?" Then he started to laugh, his laughter echoing deep into the halls of mountain, "What else have you brought me, Barrel-Rider? Perhaps you've brought me a great plucked pigeon, so I may roast it and devore it whole! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"You don't know everything, O Smaug the Mighty," Bilbo called out, "Not gold alone brought us hither!"

"HA! HA! You admit the 'us'" Laughed Smaug. "Why not say 'us fourteen' and be done with it, Mr Lucky Number? I am pleased to hear that you had other business in these parts besides my gold. In that case you may perhaps, not altogether waste your time.

"I don't know if it has occured to you that, even if you could steal the gold but by but-a matter of a hundred years or so-you could not get very far? Not much use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you never thought of the catch? A fourteenth share, I suppose or something like it, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? What about armed guards and tolls?" Smaug laughed aloud, "Nay, It would take you a thousands years to take my treasure! You fools! Ha!"

Bilbo just chuckled till he began to laugh.

"What is so amusing, Barrel-rider?" Smaug growled, his voice coming out in a disgusted hiss.

"I tell you, that gold was only an afterthought with us. We came over hill and under hill, by wave and wind, for _**Revenge**_ _._ Surely, O smaug the unassessably wealthy, you must realize that your success has made you some bitter enemies?"

Then Smaug really did laugh-a devastating sound which shook Bilbo to the floor, the mountain shaking at its roots, its ceiling rocking and the loose stones coming down in rains, while far up in the tunnel the dwarves huddled in instinctual fear, their companions transfixed with fright and awe. All except for Thorin Oakenshield, who's face bared into a snarl.

"Revenge? Revenge!? **You**? Ha!" in this did the Dragon rise to his full height, his head trailing the stone foundations of the ceiling as he chortled vindictively, "The King under the Mountain is dead! I slew him in his very home! Where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Cowering before my terrifying might! Girion Lord of Dale is dead, Thief in the Shadows, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep! Where are his sons' sons that dare approach me!? Hiding like the cowards they are! And they should be afraid!"

The Dragon laid back his head and bellowed to the world, "I… Am… SMAUG! I kill where I wish! I have lain low the warriors of old! I have vanquished their armies, their sons! I have taken their mountain as my own! Then I was but young and tender! Now I am old and strong!" he then slammed his foot into the ground, shaking it with his damnable weight, "Strong!" then he did it again, causing a tidal wave of gold to come crashing down and nearly submerge where Bilbo was hiding, " **Strong!** " And he brought his paw crashing down one more time, causing the nearby pillar to crack under the vibrational pressure, "There is none that can match me!

"My armor is like tenfold shields. My teeth are like swords. My claws, spears; the shock of my tail - a thunderbolt!" he then slammed his tail directly into the already cracked pillar, causing it to topple over and slam into the gold with terrible applause, "My wings, a hurricane, and my breath - death!" he then sprouted forth a torrent of terrifying fire, melting all before him into a sea of molten gold.

"Well?" he asked then with a leering smile of superiority, "WELL!? Where are your riddles, now!?"

Bilbo stared up at the terrifying mass of death leering above him, and then he saw something there, amidst the gold crusted mass of Smaug's underbelly. Could it be? He smiled.

"I have always understood, that dragons were softer underneath especially in the region of the chest; but doubtless one so fortified has thought of that."

Smaug snorted, "Your information is antiquated, I am armoured above and below with iron scales and hard gems. No blade can pierce me."

"I might have guessed it," Bilbo said as he continued to stoke the fires of Smaug's excessive vanity, hoping that he would expose the weakness he had glimpsed for a moment, "truly there can nowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug the Impenetrable. What magnificence to possess a waistcoat of fine diamonds!"

"Yes it is rare and wonderful, indeed." Smaug said absurdly pleased, he didn't realize that the Hobbit caught a glimpse of an anomaly in the armour, the dragon rolled sealing his fate, "Look! What do you think of that."

"Dazzlingly, Marvellous! Perfect! Flawless! Staggering!" Bilbo praised outwardly, as he thought deviously, 'Old fool! Why, there is a large hollow patch on his left breast as bare as a snail out of his shell!'

"Lovely praises," Smaug smirked as he rose to become a looming shadow over Bilbo, "how about I compliment you, as well?"

Bilbo's heart stopped. Smaug was staring at him, straight at him. In this, did Smaug's smirk turn into a knowing grin, and before Bilbo could run, the Dragon's tail was upon him. It swept a tidal wave of gold through him, sending him flying into the air until he rolled about on the weathered stone.

It was only when he slowly began to stir that he realized that he was no longer invisible.

"There you are, Thief in the Shadows."

Bilbo gulped, "Help." he squeaked as he stared up at the terrifying mass grinning at him. Slowly, Smaug brought his head level with the Hobbit, forcing him against the wall with his arms sprawled out. Smaug stop a mere five paces from him, tilting his head as he chuckled.

"I told you, you would come to a bad end if you stuck with the dwarves."

Bilbo was like a mouse to a cat. Helpless. A mere few moments from death. Smaug revelled in his terror as he reared his head back, "Now, tell me, my little friend," a bright orange immenated from his throat as he smiled evilly, "how do you wish to die?"

Bilbo closed his eyes, expecting the hot searing pain and then the darkness that would follow. It didn't happen. Something hard and metallic swept him off his feet as the air grew hot as an oven but he did not burn. Metal crashed against stone, and Bilbo chanced to open his eyes to find cat's eyes looking down at him.

"J-Jasmine?"

"It's okay, Bilbo. I've got you."

"Ah…" Smaug gloated, "the thing that smells like cat. A cat on two legs, wearing armor. Heh heh heh heh. Good. I will enjoy roasting you like a tin can-"

"YOU WILL NOT!"

The air suddenly froze, as did Smaug. Very slowly, he turned around and his went wide at what he saw, "You…"

"Yes, me," Thorin stated with eyes full of hateful defiance as he emerged from the doorway, standing before the dragon with all the pride of the Dwarf Kin, "Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror. You asked where the sons of Erebor and Dale were," he then jutted a finger at Smaug, "they stand before you, here for revenge!"

Smaug continue to stare in shock at him, unsure if he was seeing a ghost. And he laughed, "I see only a son of Erebor, Thorin Oakenshield. Where is the son of Dale?"

"He is here!" a new voice called from high above. All eyes turned to the landing far above to see Bard, Captain of the Guard, standing with bow in hand with a snarl on his face, "I am son of sons of Girion, Lord of Dale. I too have come for vengeance, great worm!"

"Ha ha ha!" Smaug laughed maniacally, "And so you have, sons of my conquered foes! Come, to join your father's fathers in death!"

"Nay!" Bard growled, "It is you who shall join the rest of your kin in shadow and death!"

"Am I, now?" Smaug glowered, "So says the son of son of the man who failed to kill me! Who slung arrow and bolt at my hide and yet could never pierce me! Who wallowed in despair as I burned his precious city of Dale to magnificent ruin! Ha! You who dare threaten me? I will do so again, son of son! I will burn your Lake Town to cinders and scatter your ashes to the four winds!"

"No, you will not!" Thorin bellowed at him, "You will not even leave this mountain alive! You will die here, you pitiful excuse of fire-lizard!"

"Bah!" Smaug spread his wings wide, sending a torrent of wind in all directions, "I am Smaug! The great and terrible! I destroyed your houses, and broke your people! You will join them soon!"

"Perhaps," Bard smirked, "perhaps in the days of old, you were mighty! You great and terrible! But you are not so now!"

Smaug reared his head at him, a scowl playing on feral lips as Thorin shouted back.

"Indeed! Where is the monster that struck fear in the hearts of all!? I do not see him here! All I see is a fat, bloated toad with wings! How slow and disgusting you have grown in your idleness!"

"ENOUGH!" and with this, Smaug unleashed his rage through a storm of fire and napalm towards the Dwarven King. When the fire disappointed, Thorin was left untouched. He started laughing.

"Is that all you have, you pitiful worm?"

"How? HOW!?" Smaug shouted as he unleashed yet another torrent of fire. This time however, the flames came right back at him, searing him in eyes, "AH!" he screamed as he waddled about, his wings rubbing profusely at his tearing eyes. After a moment, his eyes pink and red, Smaug regained himself and saw two figures standing behind Thorin. They were human, and they were dressed in armor.

"Ah, now I understand," Smaug smiled, "you bought yourself a pair of wizards! What's the matter, oh King under the Mountain? Can't fight your battles yourself?"

"We have come of our choosing, demon!" Tau shouted at him, gesturing a sword of flame in his direction, "You are an affront to everything that is good and holy! For this, you will perish!"

"Bah!" And Smaug once more unleashed his breath upon them. Now he could see clearly what they were doing. They were projecting some kind of magic shield and were trying to drive his fire back. Well, he wouldn't be fooled a second time. Smaug secured his footing, and kept pouring the fire on. Then, a great stone struck him in the head and he staggered for a moment. Then came another and another!

He chanced a look to his left, and he saw more of the armored Wizards standing next to Bard. There were Dwarves, Lake Men and men in black armor shooting at him with fire and arrows as the Wizards continued hurling stones and gold caskets at him. Smaug prepared to swing right to incinerate the lot of them when he heard a bellow.

"DEUS VULT!" Viridian shouted and threw his sword at the dragon, the blade flew true and skewered the dragon's eye. Smaug reared back in pain as his screams shook the mountain!

"DAMN YOU!" Smaug howled as he clawed feverishly at his eyes, pain like no other taking over him, "I WILL TURN YOU INTO A MELTED CANDLE, WIZARD!"

"I AM A JEDI!" Viridian shouted, "AND YOUR REIGN OF TERROR IS AT AN END!"

"So you keep saying!" Smaug hissed as he then swung his tail, smashing down another pillar and sending it toppling over to where Thorin and these Jedi were. They moved with a speed only befitting a wizard, and Smaug prepared to take flight. He would not fight them here. He would go outside and do good on his promise to Lake Town. No doubt the fools would try and stop them. There he would-

"Gah!" Smaug cursed as something hot and heavy hit him in the face with the sound a thundercrack. He rubbed at his eye seeing there in front of him an armored figure flying! Flying with fire!

"Where do you think you're going, you oversized lizard?" He then shot another lightning bolt of flame into his face and Smaug snarled.

"After you, you little insect!" he then shot flame at the flying knight, but he promptly ducked it and flew away. The heat of the hunt was now in Smaug. He took off after him, pursuing him through the Great Treasury, "I will show you what true flight is, metal fly!"

"Then come and get me, you fat flying cat!"

"I AM A DRAGON! RARGH!" and now Jak was ducking and diving from a long torrent of flame that was coming close to knocking him. He then spoke into his comm.

"Okay, he's followin' me! Now what?"

Thorin answered him, surprising him a little, " _Keep flying onward until you reach the fork ahead. Go left, and lure him into the forges. We will meet you there!"_

"Copy!" he acknowledged as performed a barrel roll to avoid another fiery close encounter, "That's if I don't get cooked first!"

He flew on and on until he was out of the Treasury. Now he was down a never ending corridor and Smaug was still on him.

"Where are you going, little fly?" Smaug taunted him. Suddenly, a barrage of missiles struck him in the sides and wings, causing him to stagger and flop to the ground as he moaned in pain. Jak stopped and hovered as the two other Mandalorians who had accompanied them came to join him.

"Aim for his head!" Jak shouted, and the Mandalorians began pelting Smaug with every rocket, missile and blaster shot they could get off before they ran dry and Smaug was coming at them again!

"More flies!" Smaug howled, "I will swat you all!"

"Time to go!" Jak shouted and the Mando's were flying like a bat out of hell. Still, a satisfactory smile crossed his lips. Smaug's head was not pelted in sores, blisters and burns. They may not have hurt him bad, but they still hurt him.

Back in the Treasury, the rest of the company was rendezvousing and regrouping for the fast sprint to cut Smaug off to the Forges. Thorin practically bear hugged Bilbo when he came into sight before he cursed him.

"You idiot! What did I tell you? You were supposed to run at the first sign of trouble!"

"I know!" Bilbo exclaimed as he wriggled out of Thorin's grip, "But it was for good reason! Smaug has a weakness! There's a hole in his underside armor! Right where his heart would be, on the left breast!"

"How big is this hole?" Bard asked suddenly. Biblo shrugged.

"At least the size of a full grown man."

Bard nodded, and drew from his quiver a long, black iron arrow the size of a man's arm length spread wide, "Good enough," he said grimly as Thorin's eyes went wide.

"Is that-"

"It is."

"That was a gift for your forefather."

"Indeed, and it is the last one. I intend to end him with it."

Thorin nodded, "Then we will bring the beast to you. Do not miss."

"I will not." Bard stated simply, as he moved on to the next planned ambush point. The rest of the company of Dwarves, Jedi, Troopers and Guards all moved to make the trap ready.

Jak lead the Mandos to the fork, quickly diving left as they threw their thermal detonators up into the air and taking out a good chunk of the roof. It did little to actually hurt Smaug, but it did slow him down a fair bit.

" _The Forge is ahead,"_ Cassus commed him, " _what now?"_

"We keep on flying and we lure him in. Hopefully they'll have whatever they have planned ready by the time we get there."

"Metal flies!" Smaug bellowed, "I will eat you! I will burn you!"

" _It's Mandalorians, you idiot!"_ Bevein shouted, shooting back at the Dragon, who swifted answered him with a fiery retaliation. Jak suddenly heard a piercing scream on his comms, and he turned back to see Bevein on fire!

"Hang on!" Jak screamed as he dove backwards, grabbing Bevein in his arm and began patting his arms and legs. Their suits were largely fire resistant, but Smaug's breath had the temperature to melt gold and it was showing. Though Bevein had managed to avoid the majority of Smaug's flames, the ones that had got him and had burned through his suit had burned the skin black as char.

With Smaug gaining on them, Jak knew he didn't have time to put it all out by hand. He pulled on a switch, and white foam spurted to envelop his body. It quickly doused the remaining flames, but Bevein screamed even harder as his scorched skin became badly irritated by the foam. Granted, it didn't last very long as the pain grew so unbearable that he promptly passed out.

"Guys, I need a bugout!" Jak called on his comm, "Bevein's cold and Smaug's gaining!"

" _Up ahead!"_ Cassus called back, " _Go left at the next passage! I'll lure the dema'golka!"_

He then fired his concussion missiles at Smaug. The Dragon shot forth a short burst of flame, incinerating one, but the other went high and impacted next to his ears. Smaug screeched in pain as he flopped over and slammed into the wall with a booming crash. It wouldn't last long, so Jak took his chance and disappeared down the second passage.

" _Aw, what's the matter, ugly?"_ Cassus sneered as he started pelting the down dragon with blaster fire, " _That hurt? How 'bout some more?"_

"BURN!" and Smaug let loose a fiery storm but Cassus was already down the hallway.

" _Too slow, Fatso! Come on! Let's work on your cardio!"_

Up ahead, Thorin's voice bellowed out in the Great Forge, "SET AFLAME THE FOUNDRY! PUMP THE BELLOWS!"

"Comin' right up!" Niles shouted back, "Hey Jaing! Up fer barbecuing a lizard?"

"Why not?" and the two men started throwing their incendiary grenades into the forges, sparking massive bonfires only increased as everybody started pumping air into the great fire pits. All around them, the entire expanse of the foundry burst into flame light, painting the room in thick orange and yellow overtures.

When Smaug had taken the mountain from them, the Dwarves had still been producing gold in these very halls. The forges were still brimming with coal, fuel and wood; the great melting pots filled to their capacity with gold and other soft gems, and despite years of misuse, the foundry was still capable of what it was intended for: melting and casting great golden statues. Only this time, they were going to try and melt Smaug with it.

The heat produced by the great forge was beginning to melt the gold, when Cassus flew in, not a moment later the great beast followed him in.

"Damnit!" Thorin cursed, "The gold's not ready yet!"

"We'll keep him busy!" Tau shouted down to him from above, "Do what you need to do!"

"Metal fly!" Smaug shouted as he finally caught Cassus in a corner and smacked him hard against the wall with his tail. He tumbled to the floor, lying limp and unmoving but still breathing. The Dragon gloated over him, raising his tail to finish him off, "Now I will swat you like the insect you are!"

Viridian lept on to the dragons face, and punched him in his good eye with an armored fist.

"Gahah!" Smaug screamed as he started spraying the room with panicked flames. A Lake Town gaurd screamed as he was caught in the path of the several thousand degree heat, his scream snuffed out in a second. Everybody took the hint to take cover, but not Tau and Kes. Tau took to throwing massive iron smelters at the dragon, the great pots banging loudly against his armored hide like a brass bell . Kes on the other hand was tossing generally everything else in the room that wasn't important or bolted down in a giant tornado of detritus, aiming it directly at the dragon's wings.

While hurt and bludgeoned, Smaug wasn't out by a long shot. He promptly retaliated by slamming his wings together and sending a shockwave at the two armored Jedi, sending them flying away. Before he could follow up with his fire breath, the troopers opened fire from one side of the room with rockets and blaster fire, while on the other side, the Dwarves were tossing flash bombs at his head and wings. They kept pelting him with everything they had, and the dragon found he couldn't fly away as now the Guards were shooting at his wings with bolts and arrows.

"ENOUGH!" Smaug roared as he slammed his tail straight into a still sitting gold cauldron, slamming it straight into a pillar which then crash into the platform the Dwarves were on.

"Look out!" Balin screamed as the pillar came crashing down upon them. Balin rolled forward, escaping the path rather easily. Unfortunately, Kili and Fili rolled the wrong way and found themselves falling off the platform. They fell twenty feet onto the stone floor, the cracking of their bones echoing with sickening effect followed by the loud report of their screams.

Smaug heard this and started coming at them, intending to crush them under paw. Suddenly, Jasmine was on his back, dropping down from a bridge above, and thrust her blade directly into Smaug's back. The dragon howled in pain, and began shaking profusely to get the Cathar off him.

Xey off to the right of him grabbed the fallen pillar with her telekinesis and pushed it directly into the dragon, breaking it into over his body as he went crashing down. Jasmine ran along the length of his body, fully intending to hack off one of his wings. Unfortunately, she never got the chance and Smaug swung said wing at her and sent her flying. Before she was out, he swing his tail like a baseball bat, tossing her away as she hit one of the cauldrons with a loud _bong!_

He then used his tails to send another idle cauldron flying right at Nile and Jaing, smashing the pillar they stood behind and forcing them to take cover.

Meanwhile, Viridian was still clinging desperately to the side of Smaug's neck, and as Xey threw a boulder at his wing, he took the effort to leap right back up and slam his fist right into Smaug's still healthy eye again and again. As blood and fluids pore from it, Smaug gritted his teeth and bucked Viridian away. As he came up, Smaug was already on him. He rolled to the side as Smaug's fire nearly cooked him.

It was only after rolling away and having a moment to reflect that he realized he had. With terrified eyes, he watched as his right arm literally melted away in a steaming pile of goop and charred bone that all fell away with an agonizing hiss!

Viridian let out a chortled scream of pain through clenched teeth and lips as he fell to his knees, clutching the melted remains of his arm.

"Yes scream in pain, wizard!" Smaug laughed devilishly, "I want to hear that before I add you to my bloody tally."

Viridian glared at Smaug with obvious pain and rage in his face, "Go to Hell!"

"I've been there. It's overrated!"

"NO!" Kes screamed as she leapt over and grabbed Viridian in blinding tackle, taking them both behind cover as Smaug literally melted the ground Viridian had been not three seconds earlier.

"Viridian are you- GAAH!" Kes suddenly screamed as the smell of melting flesh and steel touched her nose, just before the pain hit her mind. Her foot was gone!

"Come out and play, crippled wizards!" Smaug sneered as he approached their hiding place.

Viridian took a ragged breath, forcing his mind to calm and called upon the Force. He let it flow into him as he dove into its depths, as the dragon tried to taunt them out of their hiding spot. Suddenly, there was a loud shout as Bilbo called out from above, "HEY! REMEMBER ME!"

"Ah, I do!" Smaug grinned, "Come to die?"

"Have you ever tried Hobbit before, worm!?" Bilbo snarled, "Why don't you come and find out!?"

"Ah, so that is what you are," a hungry smirk playing on the dragons lips as he rose to his full height, "yes, I think I will. But first, I'm going to break your legs!"

He then lunged forward, attempting to take a chomp at the Hobbit. Bilbo brought up his hands in a feeble attempt to protect himself. Suddenly though, he stopped moving! No, he didn't stop, something was holding him!

"That's… my… friend!" Viridian snarled as he lifted his extended hand, Smaug tried to claw at the ground, but it was to no avail. Then he started to right off the ground without his doing, seeing now the woman extending both of her hands as well. Viridian then bellowed, "And you, just hurt… the woman... I am going to marry! DIE WORM!" with that bellow Viridian and Kes threw Smaug to the far wall with a terrifying crash, stunning the great beast.

As this happened, Viridian fell into near unconciousness, Kes only a little better as they crawled further into their hidey hole.

"TAU! THE GOLD IS READY!" Thorin shouted.

Tau nodded and shouted, "Xey! I need your help!" he then shouted to the rest of the company, "Force him towards the smelting trench!"

With this, the Gaurds rose from cover and began hurling javalins, shooting arrows and tossing the Dwarves remaining supply of flash bombs at the still stunned dragon. Jaing emerged from the rubble, limping with a fractured leg but he quickly added to the exchange with bursts from his blaster, resting it on a stone.

Smaug, still seeing stars, wasn't in much state to do much except try to crawl away from the ranged fire blistering away at his hide. Then he began scampering away as Jak came screaming out of an adjacent hallway, unleashing a fresh barrage of missiles and rockets at him. As Smaug fell into the long smelting trench he bellowed.

"I WILL BURN YOUR FLESH AND FEAST ON YOUR BONES! I… AM… SMAUG-"

"YOU ARE DEAD!" Thorin screamed as he slammed his axe into a bracing chain, causing a hanging cauldron to fall just as Tau and Xey dropped theirs.

Smaug screamed and cried out in pain as the molten gold fell upon him with a ferocious heat. Smaug flailed desperately, but the weight of the molten metal only dragged further and further under until he was fully submerged. Once Smaug disappeared under the gleaming metal, the company collectively held their breath, waiting to see what would happen next

"Is that it?" Niles asked as he limped up to Jaing, nursing a broken arm but never letting his guard down.

He got his answer the next second when Smaug splashed out of the molten metal screaming, "IT BURNS!" he sobbed as his hide smoked burned with the coat of gold smelting him. As he crawled out like a soaked cat, he desperately shook it off, the gold flying all over burning some unfortunate guardsmen and dwarves in the metal rain, and forcing the rest to stay under cover.

Ahead stood the main entrance to the mountain and the outside world, and Smaug started stamping towards it. "REVENGE!?" he bellowed in rage and pain, "I WILL SHOW YOU REVENGE!"

"YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THIS MOUNTAIN ALIVE! AAAAGH!"

From his left, Smaug saw Thorin flying at him with a giant axe, screaming a war cry. If he hadn't been so pelted and burned, Smaug might've been able to gobble him whole but he was far too slow. As his head turned rather lethargically, Thorin buried the full head of the axe right into his snout with a sickening crunch.

Normally, such a weapon wouldn't have even gotten through the hide itself. But as hot pain shot from his nose straight into his already battered mind, Smaug immediately realized the axe had been made of mithril. Smaug snarled like never before, and with the axe still firmly imbedded in his nose, he shook his head furiously until he threw Thorin away and fell to the floor directly in front of him. Thorin tried to get up, but he groaned and clutched his chest, falling back to the stone floor.

"No… more… Dwarves!" Smaug howled as he stomped towards the fallen King, "No… more… Wizards!" he opened his mouth, "No… more… Lake Men!" orange flame bubbled up from his throat, "This… is… my… MOUNTAIN!"

"Then die in it!" before Smaug could react, he heard the distinctive sound of an iron arrow coming at him. In the seconds before it hit him, he recognized its death note.

'No,' he thought, 'it can't be!'

But it was. He felt the arrow somehow pierce through, somehow find his heart, somehow… he was dying. A pain he had never felt before hit him all at once. It was hot and searing, but then it was gone. It was replaced by feeling he had never felt before.

"I… feel… cold," Smaug whispered as he clutched where the black arrow had entered his heart. He stared at in disbelief. A hole in his underbelly, "H-hhow...?"

"You shouldn't have let me see your underbelly," the Hobbit said from behind him. Smaug tired to turn, tried to speak, but everything felt so strange. He felt like he was underwater. He couldn't move, he couldn't stop himself from falling backward, right back into the gold. His wings fell out and prevented him from fully submerging, but his body still fell largely in. He couldn't even feel the heat anymore, all there was was just the cold.

Footsteps came his way. He looked down with his eyes, and there was Thorin, there was Lake Man, there was the Hobbit, and there was the Wizard. Without feeling, he watched the black arrow leave his body, levitating in the air before it came back to the wizard, and then to the Lake Man.

"I… am… Sma…" and then the life left him and his head flopped backwards, his eyes rolling lifeless in his eyes. So did pass Smaug, the great and terrible, another the dragons to fade away into legend. Buried by that which he desired most.

"It's over," Bilbo said, rather deflated.

"Yes," Thorin nodded, "it is."

"Our forebearers have been avenged," Bard said as he held his black arrow with rather numb fingers, "now, Erebor and Dale can rebuild."

"Indeed they may," Thorin turned to Bard, and offered his hand, "our treasure, son of sons of Girion, is yours as well."

"I…" Bard hesitated, "it's yours, though."

"Yes, it is. But it also this company's, and by extension, yours. Dale and Erebor were friends in the old days. I wish for them to be so again. A good king cannot rule without good neighbors."

Bard nodded and took the Dwarfs hand, "So be it, King under the Mountain. May Dale and Erebor be friends ever more."

"So shall they be, King of Dale."

Jak then walked over, staring at the dragon, "What are we going to do with the body?"

"Push him in, perhaps entomb in gold and make a trophy out of him," Thorin shrugged, "if we have the energy left."

"Well, before we do that and before he fully submerges, I'm gonna take that axe and break off a tooth. Hell, I'll probably break off another two."

"You do not need my permission, Mandalorian," Thorin smiled, "do what you wish."

"Thanks," and Jak flew off to get his trophies.

Slowly, the battered and bloodied company emerged from the shadows, surrounding the Kings and the dead dragon. All came, regardless of almost all of them having been burned or suffered broken bones. For this was the conclusion of a journey taken over so many months and dangers. They weren't going to miss this.

"My friends, thank you all. It has been a long road for all of you, some of us longer but all hard nonetheless. But here we are. Smaug is dead, and Erebor is ours again. We will use this gold to rebuild, to call for our kin, to make our home great again. And everyone of you will receive your share of the treasure, as was promised. Jedi, Stormtroopers, Mandalorians, men of Laketown, and you, Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. We could not have done it without you. Thank you."

They all took to a cheer that rang loud for all to hear, even in the distant Laketown.

Smaug was dead. Erebor was free again. The question was now, how long was it going to be that way?

 **AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, now comes the true challenge can they hold onto the Home that they reconquered, we shall see in the coming chapters, see you all next week with Chapter 45 The Men of Rhun**


	46. Men of Rhun

**AN: another week another chapter, Special thanks to Jacob for his help on this chapter, I hope you all enjoy, as of right now chapter 46 isn't written yet but don't worry I hope to have it ready soon.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Star Wars nor the Tales of Arda they belong to LucasFilm and Tolkien respectively, with that out of the way here is the chapter.**

Chapter 45: The Men of Rhun

"Come on, the bear did not exist!" Ayla exclaimed as she and her spotter were calibrating the effective ranges and sight lines of their respective weapons, using a tree off about 200 yards away as their marker. Twice, Clint had greatly impressed her with his marksmanship by actually bringing down a deer nearly 150 yards away with three well placed shots, and then later hitting a marked shield on said tree. Granted, with the latter, someone had the ungrateful job of having to bring in the kill.

Now that everything was set up in the bell tower, they had nothing to do but jaw-jack.

"Yes It did, madam!" Clint snorted, "I should know, I fought the damn thing! I shot it with at least two scores of arrows. And mind you, lady, these were steel-barbed arrows designed for hunting! You saw what they did to that deer earlier, and that was at even greater distance!"

"I'm sorry, you shot these arrows," she held up one from his collection of arrows and crossbolts, "two scores of them, into a bear… and it didn't die? Are you even sure you were fighting a bear?"

"Of course it was a bloody bear!" Clint threw up his arms in exasperation, "Or at least a demon in the shape of a bear!"

"Demon? Right!" she replied sarcastically, "Look, I'm willing to buy wizards and dragons, and whatnot. But demons? Come on."

"Come now, madam, you know those things exist here," his lips twisted into an ironic smile, "after all, the elf you have a fancy towards killed one."

"WHERE THE CARKING HELL DID YOU HEAR THAT!?"

"Which part? The demon killing Elf or that you want to court him and do worse? Believe me, you do not know the power of guard gossip! After all, sometimes guard duty gets very boring."

"Alright, fine. So, what happened to the bear afterwards?"

"As I said, I shot it full of arrows, but the bastard thing kept running. It took the head off of two, killed another with his sword and yes, you did not mishear me. The bloody thing wielded a sword! Anyhoo, a couple of us mounted up and chased the things for several leagues until we forced it off a cliff."

"Let me guess. It survived?"

"Aye, it did. There was a river there and it flopped on it like an obese beaver. So, we shot it full of more arrows until it was a porcupine in all but name! Surely we thought, this thing be dead. But no! It gets up, attacks a fording party and makes off with an entire keg worth of mead!"

"Okaaay… so this bear can tank 50+ arrows, wield a sword, survive falling off a cliff and belly flopping onto a river, and then it takes off with beer."

"Mead, madam, not beer. Tis a different matter of drink altogether."

"Sure. Look, can you understand why I find this hard to believe?"

"Any harder to believe that you fought a great war across the stars against an army of somewhat free thinking metal men being controlled by brutes, monsters and wizards?"

"Hey! That actually happened!"

"So did the Bear!"

"You know what, I can't argue against that… especially now that I see it."

Clints reaction was immediate and rather hilarious if it wasn't so genuinely terrifying, "WHAT!?"

He spun around, and there off in the distance was indeed a bear just sitting there. It was a big bear too, Ayla noted. Though it was hunched over, its sheer size gave her a guess of maybe 500 pounds easy, and if weight was anything to go by, then it might've been twice the size of a man.

"Oh my giddy aunt!" Clint exclaimed, "It's him! It's the bloody bear!"

"Are you sure it's him?"

"Yes. Look through your scope. You'll see he has a white streak across his head."

He did indeed. Clint was frozen solid at the sight of him, standing there like a petrified tree. And then the bear start waving at them.

"Now he's mocking us!" Ayla exclaimed.

"YOU DAFT BASTARD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" and Clint immediately grabbed his longbow and began loosing arrows at the bear. So angry was he that he completely forgot the fundamentals of shooting, missing by a large margin due to wind pattern or forgetting to calculate the air drop. The bear just kept waving and waving at them, and Clint kept missing.

Right before Clint could go so far as throwing his bow out the window, Ayla stopped him by grabbing him and throwing him onto the floor, "Calm the hell down, you buffoon!" She screamed at him.

"The bear won't leave me alone!"

"Just calm down, okay!? Breathe! I thought you were supposed to be a professional!"

"I am one!"

"Then act like it. Calm… DOWN!"

Clint did as he was bid, taking a long minute to regulate himself until he finally rose to his feet and drew another arrow. Instead of loosing this one with a halfassed attempt, he took his time, gauged the wind pattern, aimed a bit up, and the bolt knocked the bear over.

"GOT HIM!"

"Wait, he's getting up!"

It did indeed, and it proceeded to first tear out the arrow and then break it in half. It rose to its feet and spread its arms wide, mocking them as it did.

"You know what? I'm gonna help you," she shouldered her sniper blaster and took aim, and fired. The plasma bolt flew true and hit the bear in the chest, throwing it off its feet under the hill and out of sight.

The two stood there for a moment, "Did ya kill it?" Clint asked. He got his answer when the bear stood up and walked back up the hill, "Valar damn it!"

The bear brushed itself off and made an obscene gesture at them before wandering off.

"That son of a Hutt whore!" Ayla exclaimed.

"M'lady, that is so unseamly, but tis accurate… what's a hutt?"

"Don't worry about it."

" _AYLA!_ " Jane's voice came over their comn, " _You two better not be wasting ammo._ "

" _WE'RE NOT!"_ She called back, "Should we tell 'em?"

"Uh, no. We got bigger problems than some daft tricky bear! Though, I am going to hunt him down, skin him and make a rug out of him. My kids feet will love him! Besides, the other guardsmen will tell him later."

Below them, Jane shook his head in annoyance, "Those two really need to save it for the battle ahead." he grumbled as he sat with Celebion, Dex, Janus, Du, and Ulra around a campfire.

Janus sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. He looked up at the sky for a long moment before he finally turned to Jane, "There is something I got to say, it's been bugging me for a while and I need to say it."

"The next words that come out of your mouth better not be 'incase something happens' i will not tolerate that talk." Jane told the prince.

"No that's not it," Janus assured him, "I-I want to be the one to deliver the news to Cyrus' family."

Dex and Jane sat up straight at that, "Why?"

"I… I am so very sorry for what happened in Bree, I wish I never-"

"Look at the time, you thought we were trying to kill you. I do not blame you for what happened, and well, a group of imperial soldiers is perhaps the last group you would trust." Jane told the young prince.

"Cyrus didn't deserve to die." Janus said as he wiped away tears.

Jane looked at Celebion, before looking back at Janus, "There are many who live that deserve death, and there are many that died who deserve life. What happened, happened. It cannot be undone. All we can do is strive for a better tomorrow."

"It's not that, Jane," Janus sighed, "I was taught that the taking of a life is abhorrent, but if necessary and done with righteousness, it is little more than chore. But I was also taught that it should only be **when** necessary. I've went over what happened to Cyrus for months now, and there were so many ways I could've incapacitated him or eluded him. Instead, I went for the most convenient option… which was to kill him."

Celebion decided to pipe in, "But you had justifications. You were angry at the Empire. They had just taken your home, killed your loved ones and were then hunting you. You were no longer a prince, and in truth you are not one now. You are a warrior, first and for the moment, only. And as a warrior, you are required to meet violence with violence until the need for it has passed."

"But I am not just a prince or a warrior, Celebion. I am a Jedi, and we use our power for defense of others, not for vengeance or retribution."

"Sometimes in order to defend one's self or others requires violence. It is an unfortunate truth one I would never wish for someone so young."

"Look, Janus, we don't hate you for what you did," Jane put his hand on the man's shoulder, "we understand why and we understand your guilt for it, and I've gone over that day the past few months myself. If I hadn't ordered my men to come after you, Cyrus would still be alive. But I had orders at the time and I was determined to find my brother. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"I think so. You're saying it's pointless to look back?"

"Not pointless. Yes, learn from it, but don't stay in it. You're not omniscient, and you can't change the past."

"I still want to be the one to give them the news."

Dex snorted, "What are you going to say? 'Hi I am the guy that killed your husband and father in battle.'"

"Well not like that." Janus replied with a defensive tone

"Then like what?" Jane retorted, "Janus, your talking about visiting the family of the man you killed in battle. That is, to be very blunt, all kinds of stupid."

"Well it's a Carthean custom." Janus stated.

"You mean to tell me that you go and apologize to the families you widowed and orphaned during a war?"

"If hostilities were ended by the pen, yes."

"I wonder how many more folks die because of that," Dex grumbled, "Janus, it may work with your people, but Cyrus' family are not Cartheans. If you show up at the door and admit that you killed him… who knows what they'll do? They might try and kill you for all we know, and tell me this, Janus, do you really want to die?"

"I can't die, my people need me."

"Then for their sake, don't do it." Dex growled, "it's our Captain's responsibility to do it."

"He's not wrong," Jane nodded, "while the Empire typically has local garrisons give the news, it's by tradition that the commanding officer do it. Besides, we can't get that news off planet, so… why pass the buck, as one might say.

"Hold on, you mean to tell me that you are completely isolated from the rest of Imperial command?!" Du asked

"Du, we're long past holocom networks, so we've had to rely on courier ships. Now, we have the Vong here, so we can't do that either.

"That's not what I mean. How long has this expedition lasted?"

"About a year?" Dex asked Jane, who nodded.

"A year. Without any reinforcements? You did tell them of the Vong right?"

"Yes, we did that the first thing." Jane said still unsure what the Zabrak was getting at.

"And they still didn't send anything?"

"They told us if we couldn't do it with what we have then we… oh my god." the realization hit him like a brick wall to the face, "They left us here to die."

"What?" Dex asked.

"Think about it? This is a suicide mission in every sense of the word!" Jane snarled, "We're basically in the force forsaken Gulag forces!"

"What the hell are you talking about, sir? They didn't leave us here."

"Dex, the Vong represent a clear and present danger to the Empire. We told them as such. They saw what they were doing. They told us as much… and what have they done about it?"

"Well they…" he then trailed off, "how long would've it taken for reinforcements to get here?"

"Less than a year, Dex. Less than a year. We haven't seen the fleet engage the Vong at all during this campaign!"

"But why? Why put so much effort into this expedition, attach us to it, if we were going to left here?"

"I told you, Gulag," Jane shook his head, "everybody knows that the Commander's been butting heads with the Empire since day one. Hell, Keen was put on our team specifically to watch **me**! Even if they didn't know we were going to disobey orders, they probably suspected and some Moff probably thought this would be the best way to get rid of us."

"I don't think that's entirely it, Captain Mallory," Celebion cut in, "I can also count two other reasons why you were left here. The first is the most obvious one. You've told me that this Empire is vast but unstable. That they still fight to control what they have. It could be as simple that there are no reserves to send."

"And the second?" Jane asked, rather unconvinced.

"How do I explain it? When you encounter an enemy that you have never encountered before, what do you do? Do you send the entire army to face them? Or do you send a small vangaurd to test their measure?"

"So we're frickin' guinea pigs, then," Dex snorted.

"I'm not familiar with the animal, but I suppose so. In a sense, you were sent to take the Vong's measure. After all, you are veterans and you possess the best weaponry your Empire could provide. But you are, well, expendable."

"Thank you Celebion you just gave me another reason for my defection." Jane cynically remarked.

"You're most welcome." Celebion smiled

"Join the club," Du chuckled, "no, really. Maybe we should make a club or something."

"Yeah, 'Everybody Screwed over by the Empire' Club," Jane snorted.

"Gentlemen I don't mean to interrupt, but Jak got his tooth."

Celebion whirled around, "Smaug is dead?"

"Smaug is dead." she smiled.

"I don't sense his presence anymore, either." Du confirmed, "Janus?" he shook his head.

"Well then Guardsmen light the beacon. I'll call Iminye and tell her to get everyone moving to Erebor." Jane said.

"SMAUG IS DEAD HAZZA HAZZA!" the lake men cheered.

As the guards men lit the beacon and prepped the smoke signals, the ground began to shake. The rocks streaming the ruined streets bounced and danced off the cobblestone. A great vibration rocked through their footwear, and settled in their bones.

"An earthquake?" Jane asked, "Here?"

"No Captain," Celebion shook his head, "battle formations."

Jane turned to the groups, "You all know what to do," he barked. "lure them in."

A few minutes after hearing and feeling the vibrations the garisan saw the enemy forces marching over the hills in the distance as well as the dust they kicked up.

Jane looked up at the tower Ayla and Clint were stationed, "Ayla, what do you see?" he asked over the comms

" _Well… you're not going to like it Cap'n, but if I had to guess I would have to say that this vanguard is at least seven thousand strong."_

" _I'd say no more than twelve thousand Captain Mallory."_ Clint chimed in,

"Osik." Jane cursed, "What about the Dark Marshal do you see him?"

There was a pause, " _Negative, I don't see dark robes."_

"Keep on the lookout the moment you see him waste him, we can't afford to tangle with him, I don't care what it takes if it takes you a dozen shots then take a dozen shots."

" _Aye. captain. Stay safe, out."_ Ayla bade

"You as well, trooper." Jane reciprocated as he turned to Celebion, "You ready, sir?"

Celebion nodded, "I will go to the front."

"And you are certain they have fortified the city?" The Dark Marshal hissed as he adjusted the saddle on his fellbeast, "You have best not exaggerate the details, Azazel. I do have as much patience as my brothers."

"If you honestly doubt my abilities," Azazel rose to his full height, standing on his bestial hind legs to the point that he all but shadowed the Nazgul in his wake, "I would suggest that take the effort to see for yourself, you pathetic excuse of a man," the bear sneered, "You can at least fly, you indolent thrall."

The Nazgul hissed, "if you were anyone else I would kill you for that comment."

"So you not see the wounds on my chest?" Azazel smiled as he pointed to the still fresh oozing marks on his massive chest, "I even got a taste of skylanders fireweapons. It tickled."

"Tickled as in it knocked you own your blubberous rump," the hint of a smug smirk slipped into his voice, "still, you are certain that they skylanders have taken defense of the ruined city?"

"Yes yes, I am."

"What of the Jed'ai?"

"I did not see or hear of them. But I did smell scents that I have never chanced across before."

"LIke they are not of this world?"

"More than that, Nazgul. Many Skylanders are Men. These were different things altogether."

"Then they are there indeed," he nodded, "many are xenos and alien even to us. The Jed'ai are of this sort, though few are Men themselves. Still, that means they left a sizable force to guard their back while they face the dragon."

"Smaug is mighty. They will-"

"Smaug is listless. He's grown fat on his laurels and gold. If the Jed'ai come in force, and they have, then he will die."

"I think you overestimate these jedi."

"You have not faced them, daemon. Do not speak of things you do not know nor understand."

"Then perhaps I will face a Jed'ai and bring you its head as a trophy."

"Such as when you returned with 54 arrows imbedded into your hide, half your body broken, and an entire keg of mead?" he asked sardonically. Azazel shrugged.

"I was bored."

"A wandering mind is a weak sort. Learn to focus before a blade finds its way into your heart."

"Oh, and you think you'll be the one to do the deed? I cannot be killed."

"No, you are put in my charge. But with any luck, your boredom will lead to stupidity, and that in turn will seal your fate."

"Pff, we shall see, ghoul."

"Indeed, daemon, we shall. Arshia!" he shouted to the assembled command structure and a Man of Rhun stepped forward.

"M'lord?"

"Take 9,000 from the vanguard. Go to the city. Do not let them leave. I will take the remaining 3,000 and see about cutting off the Lakemen's retreat to the Mountain. Have the remaining 1,000 begin preparations for the main force."

"Aye, m'lord. But, I must pose an interjection to the plan."

"Pose it then."

"Though few in number, the skylanders have repeatedly proven themselves capable of holding off great odds with their superior weaponry. Direct assaults may prove costly and fatal."

"Which is why our Shaper friends have created a new weapon for us to help even the odds." he gestured to strange organic looking mass of carapace and legs, like giant beatles.

"Aye, but they haven't been used in battle yet."

"They soon will be."

A few minutes later Clint's eyes narrowed as the nine thousand strong force marched in perfect formation in the field outside the gates of the ruined city, he spied the strange beatles almost immediately, "What do you make of those hard shells?" Clint asked Ayla.

Ayla eyed the creatures through the scope, "Not sure, I'll let the captain know though." she told him, and got on the comm with Jane, "Captain, it looks like the Vong made a new toy."

" _Report, what does it look like?"_

"They look like big giant beetles, sir. Like, if you took a beetle and made it the size of a baby Acklay. I'm not entirely sure what its purpose is, but they appear to have rending talons on their front. I wouldn't want to tangle with one, sir, it looks like it'd tear us to shreds if it got the chance."

" _Celebion says he doesn't recognize the creature. Might be a Vong creation. What about ground forces?"_

"At least ten thousand. They look like… men, sir. Not Orcs this time."

"They might be Men of Rhun," Clint advised over the radio, "East Men, Cap'n. Elite Shock Troopers."

" _I know who they are, Clint. Keep me apprised, Ayla. Over and out."_

A minute passed and the army of the East passed a bend in the road and came to view in full force. They were a mass of gold and black scaled armor, rectangular shields with spiked boses and spears almost twice the height of a man. Ayla could also see in their ranks other warriors as well, though the only ones she could recognise were Vong.

She also noted a number of strange looking Vong beats accompanying them, beyond the Beetles in the back. They were carnivorous and feral looking with armored carapaces and horns, almost like a cross between a wolf, armadillo and a Reek. These were dragging along some type of armored carriage, with thick sheets of metal formed at a sloping angle.

As she quickly updated Jane about this, Arshia of Rhun rode forward on his horse and bellowed with an imperious voice, "Lake Men! By the order of Lord Sauron, lay down your weapons and surrender."

Ayla turned to Clint, "You want to kill this arrogant son of a bitch or shall I?"

Clint grinned, "No one threatens the people of my adoption and gets away with it." he took one of his steel tipped arrows designed to penetrate armor and knocked it, "distance to target?"

"About 200 yards."

"Wind patten?"

"Low, from the east."

He rose to his feet, observing the Man of Rhun for a long moment fore he drew the arrow and sent it flying with a loud hiss. Arshia didn't see the arrow coming until it was almost upon him. He made the involuntary effort to flinch, but the arrow struck him high on the chest, near the collarbone and he was sent flopping to the ground. His Horse bucked and neighed, but did not run and obscured him from his attackers.

As such, the two snipers weren't able to confirm their kill. Then the horse parted as he was standing there, the arrow held in his hand. The shaft had splintered in the middle, the tip blunted at the very end. However, Ayla noted that there was a notable hole where the arrow had hit the armor.

"Damn," Clint cursed, "must've added extra platting to that spot. It normally doesn't have good protection at the neck compared to the rest of the body."

"I'm not so sure about that, but I'll take care of it." Ayla drew her blaster rifle forward calibrating it as she settled on his head. She smiled slightly when he stepped forward, his arms extended as though he were challenging her to try, "As you wish," she whispered.

The bolt flew forth at subsonic speed and slammed right into the man's helm while sending him flying backwards. Then he did the unexpected again. He got back up, but this time he was woozy and had to be immediately pulled from the field. Still, he had taken a round to the head, and had lived!

"What the hell?" she gasped, then she saw it in her scope, "Oh no."

"What?" Clint asked as he looked through a pair of binocs. She shook her head.

"Look at the Vong and the Men of Rhun."

"...they're wearing similar armor. Rhun's a bit different, but the textures the same. Are you saying-"

"I am," she immediately got on her radio, "Cap'n, we got a problem. The Rhun are wearing somekind of Vong Crab Armor. I shot one in the helmet, and he got back up. He had to be pulled out, but he was still breathing."

" _Ah crap,"_ he cursed, " _they came prepared this time. Alright, we know the armor is not invincible. If it takes multiple shots, then take them. I'll pass the word around."_

"Cap'n, if I may?" Clint added, "Advise the other bowmen to aim for their soft spots. The neck, joints, armpit or the eyes. Anything else won't do it save for maybe close range."

" _Roger, I'll pass it on. Stay safe, and kill as many as you can. Out."_

And with this, the two sharpshooters began taking shots at the formation, most notably the Arban's. Clint explained they were the equivalent of sergeant or a squad leader, and they bore sigils upon their shields as well as green hair plums on top of their helmets. Beyond them were, as Clint explained, their company leaders. These Jagutu's, or Lieutenants, wore red plumes, but they were much further in the back and were difficult to hit accurately.

They got no more than a few wounded and a few unconfirmed kills before the Rhun took up a formation. The front rank marched in a tight shield wall while their fellows drew their shields above their heads and marched in tandem with the front rank.

"Testudo," Clint explained, "means tortoise."

"Well, let's see if we can break this turtles shell," she handed Clint a spare blaster rifle, and though he was still a little awkward with the weapon, he quickly took up a good prone firing position. They began pelting rounds into the formation, their rounds imbedding and burning away at the shields. Some were outright absorbed, others managed to get through. Still, they were doing little more than being an annoyance to the Rhun, but at least they wouldn't march in unembedded.

"They must've coated their shields with that crab stuff," Clint pointed as he took aim at Arban and fired. The bolt struck the shield and ripped away the linen covering to reveal the alien scales beneath. The Arban took the hit with a step back before the back rank pushed him forward.

There was a bellow in the Rhun's language, followed by several horn blows, and the formation moved from a square phalanx into an arrowhead; continuing their march with the Vong armored beasts coming down the middle with the armored carriages in tow. They now were closing to 100 yards, and a dunedain horn blowed.

As the Rhun passed the 100 yard line, the men of Laketown began shelling them with missile fire, backed up the Mandalorians and the Troopers, who threw rockets and blaster bolts at the enemy. Though they took losses, it was evident that the Rhun's discipline and armor held. They continued marching, collecting their wounded and bringing them to the middle formation.

Another Rhun horn rang out, and now the Regiment size phalanx, or Tumen, broke up first into battalions, or Mingat, and finally companies, or Jagan. The armored carriages were brought up, and the Jagans formed up under and around them, similar to how infantry would support tanks and other armored vehicles.

"I don't get it, though," Ayla mused, "you said these guys don't pack archers, right?"

Clint nodded, "They're heavy infantry and cavalry first and foremost."

"Then why are they advancing like this? Without cover and the like? Why not have their guys get under those carriages before they started marching towards us? Why expose themselves to fire?"

Clint pointed ahead, beyond the Rhun formations, "I think that's your answer."

The Beatles had now arranged themselves in a line, and their carapace has pulled back to reveal a sudden glowing light emanating from their backs. This was followed by a series of strange green lights coming from within the Rhun formation before these lights shot forward like floodlights and painted the walls of the city where their shooters were firing away at the Rhun.

The ground suddenly shook as the Beatles slammed their feet into the ground, and angle their backs upward. Clint immediately grabbed a radio and bellowed on the channel, "GET OFF THE WALLS! THOSE BUGS ARE CATAPULTS!"

No less than ten seconds after his warning, the Beatles proved him right. Great writhing spheres of green energy formulated from pods on their backs and were sent hurling at the city's walls. The explosions rocked the world as the high stone walls were blasted apart. Though most of the defenders had heeded Clints warning and had pulled back, the unlucky few still on the battlements were either incinerated by the plasma or were crushed under the weight of the crumbling stone.

"Well, that changes things!" Ayla screamed over the sound of the destruction. Clint immediately began grabbing his gear and pulled on Ayla as he shouted back.

"We need to get off this tower! They'll be coming for us next!"

No sooner than he said than green light flooded his position. They were down the stairs in several seconds flat, getting down to the second floor before the tower above caved over in a thunderous explosion. The rolled down the stairs, just barely avoiding the falling stone that destroyed the rest of tower by diving under the stairwell foundation.

By the end of it, they were trapped under the mound of stone, but at least they were alive. Outside, the Rhun continued their steady and lumbering march to the Ruined City of Dale, determined to take the lives of the Lakemen and the Skylanders.

 ** **AN: hope you enjoyed, see you all next time**** **.**


End file.
